The League of Extraordinary Anime
by Piccolo Sky
Summary: Reeditted, reposted, and complete. NOT a parody. A hunter, a scientist, a rogue, a spy, a vampire, a beast, and an immortal unite to save the world.
1. Long, Dark Stranger

After giving the matter some thought, I decided to repost this old story of mine. The main reason I did so was because I thought I had gone over the top in terms of graphic violence and language. It's still quite brutal, so I toned it down a bit this time. It also no longer contains the "seven words", unless they've been censored. I'd like to avoid an M rating. However, another concern I have regarding this story is that "Vampire Hunter D" purists will likely be disappointed. When I first wrote the story, I based the character off of the Animes and the first few books. Since I continued to read the series, I realized that I neither gave an accurate representation of his abilities as they were depicted, and neither did I reflect the few nuggets of background knowledge that have come to light. I've added a few lines here and there and made some slight changes to make it more "in line" with the VHD and Hellsing universe, although the most obvious difference is that D is here at all, since it's since been revealed in the books that D was born after the fall of mankind's civilization. Another is that it's clear in the books that D's intention is to find and kill Dracula, a fact I omitted. Finally, as much as a bastard as Alucard is, he's still not as bad as Dracula in the VHD series.

Another problem was where to put this. It could actually go in several different categories. Fanfiction dot net was kind enough to create a crossover section, but there are simply too many crossovers in this story to narrow it down to only two. That created a dilemma. Most people looking for crossover fanfiction head there now. I doubt many people bother searching through hoping to stumble on the "Misc." category anymore in the regular fanfiction section, and find the old, general, "Anime X-Overs" category. Nevertheless, that's still the best place for this, as everywhere else is too specific. So if no one ever even finds it to read it...oh well. :/

As you may have guessed from the title or the summary, this story was somewhat inspired by the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but only so far as having a group of heroes from a wide variety of animes. Essentially, years ago, I took the basic description of the group from the movie, "A hunter, a scientist, a spy, a rogue, an immortal, a vampire, a beast", and I assigned an Anime character from a different series to each position. But later I thought, "How could I get these guys together?" And I decided to write a fanfiction about it. This fanfiction is a crossover not only of the seven Animes each character comes from, but also from other Animes that arise throughout the series.

I'm sad to say this story takes more from the movie version of LXG than I had intended. The sequel is more original, but I'm not sure if I want to repost that one, as violence is far greater and action is more at a premium. Philosophy is more at the heart of that one too.

You'll find out, in short order, despite this being set in the near future in the "real world", it is an alternate timeline.

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**The League of Extraordinary Anime**

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**Chapter One**

_March 22, 2015 – Berlin, Germany_

The night was cold. A dead, moist wind slowly went by that evening. The partially cloudy sky was misty and lumped, and a small streak of cloud went past the moon. It was full tonight, and a reddish tint was against it as the clouds softly rolled by. To a few passing children, the moon might hold a strange fear to it, a dread and terror and wonder of what it meant. But to one lone figure making his way through the darkness of that street, it simply meant tonight was one of no work.

The city was a fairly big one for Germany. It was old, one of the cities that dated back to a much earlier day and age…one of Germanic princes and castles and a multitude of myths and legends. Most of them had faded to nothing with time. As for the others…it was better that most people did not know whether or not they still existed. The city had been part of the Eastern Germany under Communist control. It still had a well-established industry in operation, and now following the Cold War it slowly regenerated to its former glory. A dark feeling of nostalgia and older times still hung on the city, especially at this time of night. It held an element of fear for all who went through it, a part of mystery that still sat and lurked and circulated through the streets as if it had never truly gone away with the passing of the old day and age. It was like the smell of old houses or the must that was beaten up from their rugs and curtains.

The stranger fit right in. After all, he too was a relic of the past. He remembered walking down this very street hundreds of times before. He remembered it before it was a road…before it was even a path. And he remembered when all around him was enveloped in that aged darkness and feeling of mystery…indeed when the whole world was ruled by it and not just Eastern Germany. Perhaps the day was coming when it would fade, and perhaps he would fade with it. But for now, he lingered. As long as the shadows remained, he would as well.

His face was concealed most of the time. It was dark, despite the eerie white pallor of his skin. It was always paler than normal. Sun devastated it, so he tended to keep his features mostly hid during the day. His face was young, perfectly young. And yet at the same time it seemed incredibly old…so much older than anyone around him…and any building, relic, plant…beyond the age of anything anyone had ever seen. No one ever saw his face fully though. No one ever got a good look. His face stayed concealed always partially at least beneath a long, wide-brimmed hat, pulled down to always cast a shadow over his eyes. A long, black trench coat enclosed his body, with the collar pulled high and enclosed around his neck and lower chin. Black gloves were over his hands, and tall black boots clicked against the stone pavement. He carried every possession he owned upon him. An air of silence and stillness was generated around him as he walked. People passing avoided him, as if getting near him passed into another dimension where things were colder and darker.

The stranger focused his attention on an upcoming bar. Neon lights brightly illuminated the outside, though they were flickering and weak in and of themselves. They showed no specific name of the bar, though they advertised various liquors, all in their respective languages. The bar was sublevel, and it appeared to be a dive at best. But it didn't matter. The stranger had no need or desire for liquor. His sole item of interest was outside the bar. Parked there was a large Harley-Davidson model hog. It was rare in this part of the world, but he knew enough to know it was good quality. He had also scanned the earlier ad in the paper and knew it was for sale. He had more than enough money from his last job to pay the asking price. After losing his last form of transportation two nights ago, he needed a new ride.

With calm movements yet a sense of purpose, the stranger moved to the bar. His eyes quickly found the downward staircase leading to the sublevel doorway. Once there, he quickly trotted downstairs. As he did so, however, his right eye darted to the right for a moment, and took note of a nearby car, parked in the alleyway between the bar building and the next one. Immediately, his sharp reason noticed important things. The car was German model, but it was too new for the town. Passengers were waiting in it, and both of them were staring at him. Any normal human might not have seen that, but he did. Furthermore, one was Japanese and the other was Anglo-Saxon. Noting that, he moved on downstairs, easily opened the door with one gloved hand, and stepped into the bar.

Yellow light pierced his eyes. The tables and chairs were crowded and the leather was peeling off of them. It wasn't too dirty after all, and the interior had the brick façade and the place was clean enough. A few old newspaper titles were hung from the walls. The bartender, a fat, balding man with a mustache and beard, stood in a square bar area at the center of the establishment, dressed in one of the old bow ties, white shirts, and suspenders one expected from an older age.

The stranger didn't bother even taking in his surroundings. He quickly took in and processed everything he needed to know on entry. He made straight for the bar. The bartender was polishing a glass at the moment. He looked up and cast the stranger a glance, but then went back to his work. Other than the bartender, the stranger was the only one there. That was how he preferred it. He came early on purpose. He never delighted in showing his presence off to many people. Soon, he was up at the bar. He didn't bother sitting down.

_How much for the motorcycle?_ He asked in German.

The bartender looked up to him and cast him a brief glance, as if sizing him up and looking him over. _6,000._ He answered.

Without hesitation, the stranger reached into the pocket of his trench coat, and a moment later came out with a wad of Euros. He spread them out in a fan shape on the bar right in front of the bartender. At this, the man put down his glass and turned to the money, and his eyes expanded a bit at how quickly the stranger had responded to the sale. He looked up to him again, as if by doing so he could see him again and determine if he was a murderer or crook or gangster. But the stranger showed nothing. At last, he looked back down to the money and picked it up. He counted it twice, making sure the money was there, but 6,000 Euros were all there, all in cash. He then checked to make sure that the money was real, but it was all genuine. How could it be otherwise? It came just from the local pawn shop when the stranger had exchanged his latest payment. That was one advantage over the older days. Finally, the bartender looked back to him. He gave him one last look, but then reached into his pocket. A moment later, the key was thrown on the table.

_Enjoy her._

Without saying a word, the stranger reached down and took up the key. Normally, he would have immediately turned and left. But at that moment, he noticed something. He heard the door creak behind him, as if someone else was coming in. Immediately, he smelled them. Their scent was the same as their appearance from outside: Japanese and Anglo-Saxon. The two men from the car had come in. The man reconsidered leaving. Instead, he immediately sat down in one calm movement, as if he had intended to do so the whole time. He pulled out another Euro, a five this time, and threw it on the counter.

_The local draft, please._ He told the bartender.

This made the man frown. He had been eager for this mysterious stranger shrouded in darkness to take the bike and leave. Instead, he went about filling a clean mug with beer. In reality, the stranger hated beer. Alcohol had no effect on him, so drinking it was bitter and a chore. Only one substance excited him…but he doubted he could get it here or anywhere.

The beer was placed before him and the five Euros swept off the table. Without a word and methodically, the stranger took up the glass and took a long drink from it. He heard the door close behind him, and two sets of footsteps began to approach him from behind. He never turned. His dark gaze burned before him to some invisible spot in the bar. The sets of steps came right behind him, until he could feel the presence of both men behind him. Then they stopped, and stood erect behind him.

"Herr Dracula." One of them addressed in a German accent.

The stranger knew better, however. "…I speak English." He responded. His voice was calm, not disturbing the air with the slightest vibration of an echo, yet having the penetrating force of a biting blast of icy wind.

A pause behind him. "Mr. Dracula." The voice addressed again. "We'd like a word with you."

The stranger did not respond. He took another drink from his beer.

"We represent the United Nations."

The stranger didn't answer.

"We've come to seek you out to enlist your help, Mr. Dracula."

The stranger took another drink.

"We're willing to offer you a deal for your cooperation."

The stranger set his drink down with a clink. "…I go by the name of D." The man corrected in his calm voice. "My business is vampire hunting. I doubt that the United Nations has much need for me, nor even believes that my occupation exists."

"I assure you," The other man suddenly spoke up, his accent more Japanese. "That our superiors regard your occupation very seriously. We have proof from the bodies in Sydney, the Romanian countryside reports…"

"Then I wonder," D broke off. "Why the governments for those countries saw fit to let me be arrested and subsequently sentenced to mental institutions?"

Another pause. "…We couldn't alert the public, Mr. Dracula. We've known for years, but we cannot allow the general public to know that there was actual truth to the stories about vampires. There'd be pan-"

"Why did you find me?" D interrupted.

Another pause after that. After a few moments, however, D heard a rustle of paper. A folder was then thrown down in front of him. D looked to it. It had some text and CONFIDENTIAL markings on it, but what was of most notice to D right off the bat were the pictures. He saw a few pictures of what looked like a dome facility connected to numerous pipes and ventilation systems. A sealed set of doors were in front of them. A large 26 was marked on it. There were also a few pictures of what looked like children in various stages of progeria. One of them, however, was a teen…and had a wild look in his eyes. It unnerved even the old stranger to see that. However, after looking it over, the Japanese man spoke up.

"How familiar are you with the Neo Tokyo Incident of five years ago, Mr. Dracula?"

D looked over the pictures a moment longer. His memory brought out what he had seen of it. Normally he didn't watch the news, but there was nary a man alive who had passed through the civilized world and hadn't heard of this story. It was the biggest thing in years. Soon, he began to recount his own knowledge.

"It had to do with the weapon that started World War III. It was some sort of new weapon far more powerful than any previous thermonuclear device without the residual radiation. Somehow another one went off in Neo Tokyo. After that happened, the survivors began some sort of insurrection against the rest of the Japanese government. It was youth organized for the most part. Somehow they commanded control of two orbital laser platform satellites, one for the US and one for Japan, caused a lot of destruction with them, blew themselves up into even more pieces with at least another one of those blasts. But after that, the military eventually came and wiped it all out, killing almost all the survivors left. Since then the entire metropolitan area has been condemned and abandoned by survivors and rebuilders."

"Yes." The Japanese agent responded, already sounding pensive. "That is what most people believe. However, there were several important details left out. I am not at liberty to disclose this information to you, nor am I totally informed of all details. I can tell you that the blast was not due to a thermonuclear weapon, but to a sort of biological weapon. The weapon and all data and materials regarding it was finally destroyed in one of the blasts. It has been a fear of the Japanese Government, however, over the past five years, that some of the data would have escaped."

"We now have reason to believe that is the case." The Anglo-Saxon spoke darkly. "The American Government managed to gather data independently during the incident. Somehow they managed to fill in the holes in the data since then. We calculated a comparable reading to those discovered in the original incident, though much smaller of course, within Iraqi demilitarized zone. We believe it was a test run conducted by the USA."

"Where do I fit in?" D asked at last.

"We wish to employ your services to neutralize this threat." The Anglo-Saxon answered.

"Since the incident five years ago, we have been searching for certain individuals possessing…unique talents." The Japanese agent further explained. "Such individuals we believe to be the most effective at neutralizing this threat. Past experience has shown non-affiliated individuals worked best in this situation, and the United Nations does not wish to risk open conflict with the United States over this matter."

D inclined his head slightly behind him. "…I thought the US was allies with you."

"Ever since the more aggressive stance of the US was adopted," The Anglo-Saxon sourly responded. "The United Nations has been growing apart from them. Basically, this conversation isn't happening. None of this operation is."

D showed nothing, but returned his head to his previous position. "My business is vampire hunting. I don't tend to affiliate with governments. Why do you need me?"

"Aside from your…abilities…" The Japanese went on. "You possess a great deal of ingenuity, skill, and experience, Mr. Dracula. More so than is present in the rest of our potentiates. We believe you are best suited to lead this group."

D paused himself for a moment at that.

"…I'm afraid you're very mistaken then, gentlemen." He answered, taking another drink. "When I do work, I work alone."

"We did mention a deal, Mr. Dracula." The Japanese agent answered.

"You are wanted internationally for several crimes." The Anglo-Saxon went on. "Harassment, trespassing, first degree murder, assault, breaking and entering, fraud, theft, property damage, vehicular damage, fire damage, battery, destruction of property, smuggling, traveling without a passport… Not to mention the breaking of countless treaties. This is to name a few."

"If you men have come to arrest me, I'm afraid you'll only end up as injured as your predecessors." D calmly answered.

"Cooperate with us," The man went on irregardless. "And the United Nations will grant you total amnesty: past, present, and future. From now on, you'll have immunity from any crimes committed in your line of work in any of the United Nations countries. Vampire hunting will be a totally legitimate business for you. In addition, we are willing to give you a gift: 5 million Euros."

D paused for a moment after hearing that. As a hunter, he lived mostly for the purpose of eradicating vampires from the face of the earth. But through the ages, he had determined that he had to also be shrewd from time to time, and he had to recognize a good deal when he saw it and call a bad one in advance.

D now considered his options. It did have many plusses. Traditionally, he accepted a wide variety of payments. He could demand a lot…his services weren't cheap in general. But he could also be reasonable to some poor frightened family scared out of their minds not knowing what to do when a family member came home one night with teeth marks in their neck. There were some jobs he just didn't carry out no matter the price. When D took a job, he realized his employers usually expected him to finish it no matter what, and that was what he expected of himself. If he didn't think he could finish it, he never took the job. This job, however, sounded right up his alley. There was nothing immediately that came to mind that he couldn't conceivably kill. He had experience killing far fouler, nastier things than vampires. 5 million would also be one of his largest bounties on record. Furthermore, free of the nuisances of governments would help out his occupation.

Liabilities were also a factor, however. He was supposed to agree to do a job before knowing all the details. That was always bad. Furthermore, his primary target wasn't a vampire this time. That was very unusual for him. Lastly, he had to work with a group. In all the centuries he had lived, D had never worked with a group. He was a loner in all things. He had trained himself specifically to be that way. He had no room in his life to try to even pretend he was human. Everything around him would eventually die and fade. He would live on. Only the hunt kept him going. One day, the governments that were giving him amnesty now would be forgotten, and then he would be right back to where he was again. The group was a bad idea.

And yet, there was always that one human part of him on the inside. Perhaps it was what was responsible for irrational behavior, but he listened to it from time to time. And right now, it was definitely pointing him in one direction.

D tilted his glass back and emptied it, then set it on the table. He ignored the change the bartender put before him, and stood up.

"…When do we leave?"

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NOTE: The Akira references in this story are from the manga version of Akira, which was quite a bit different from the movie.

Also, in case you haven't guessed, D, the hunter, is from the Vampire Hunter D movies. Who else will I pick next? Read on...


	2. The Magnificent Seven

**Chapter Two**

_March 24, 2015 - Tokyo, Japan_

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The agents were fast…D would give them that.

The hunter normally didn't ride in cars. He made an exception this time, however. He found himself reclining with arms and legs crossed in the back of a long, black limousine, looking so new on the inside that it seemed it had never been used. The two agents were in front of him now. Sure enough, one was blond and English, and the other was clearly Asian. He hadn't heard their names, so he called them privately A and J respectively in his head. They seemed small enough, looking more like messengers than effective at combat. At best they were skilled at gunplay. If they tried anything, dealing with them wouldn't be a problem. His own weapon, a long curved nodachi, rested against his shoulder. He had kept it hidden beneath his jacket before, but now was clearly exposed.

Getting to Tokyo had been a mad rush. After agreeing, D first was rushed into the back of the same car he had noted on entering the bar. He insisted that the motorcycle be taken as well, as he had paid for it and refused to leave it. Even now, it was strapped to the back of the limo as if it was nothing more than a station wagon. They rushed to the airport afterward, boarded a private jet, and immediately took off for Japan. They made no secret of the city of their destination, though they refused to mention address or specifics. All along the way, D was subjected to the lap of luxury, offered a wide variety of fine cigars, foods, and wines, and rejecting them all with a gesture. He never indulged in fringe benefits of a job. Much was on his mind anyway. His thoughts were turned to what manner of humans he was supposed to associate with and how he was supposed to keep them on leashes. True, D did have much knowledge and dedication to his work, but he was a strict loner. What was to be gained by him leading this? At any rate, on arrival in Japan, he immediately entered the limousine and was off again, ushered by an unseen driver. Hours had gone by since. Midnight had passed and a new day had come. They had driven out of the metropolitan areas and into what little countryside Japan had left. Now they were isolated on some forgotten, dark road.

D scanned over the agents in front of him again, but kept still and silent. He listened to his vehicle bump behind the limo, and barely even breathed. Thoughts continued to cascade through his head as he sat there, taking in all changes, making sure he knew where he was going.

"This could be a trap, D." An old voice croaked in a voice so quiet it could not be heard over the car engine, despite how quietly it ran. If one could have heard it, it would have seemed to radiate from one of his gloved hands.

D thought nothing in reply and said nothing in reply

"This is a rather big risk. We aren't even hunting a vampire this time."

D didn't respond.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I'm curious." D finally answered, speaking so quietly with such low facial movements that anyone watching him (which they weren't, because most couldn't stand to look at his face when he appeared dark and grim) would have seen nothing.

"Great. You're curious. That justifies everything."

"The price is right. I could use these people leaving me alone. And I'm interested in these people they're talking about."

"And you're going to be their fearless leader." The voice mocked playfully. "You don't even know the first thing about leadership. And face it, you're not a very good conversationalist. I've been keeping up my end alone for pretty much two hundred years now."

"If you're scared," D calmly answered. "I can cut you off right now."

The voice paused for a moment. "…I'm only shutting up because I can't ever tell when you're serious. Mark my words, D. You'll be getting another 'I told you so' from me within a week." The voice quieted and said no more.

D continued to watch the road go by. The agents weren't much for conversation, but he didn't care. Neither was he. After a few minutes more, a change finally came. Abruptly, the limo went into a tunnel. D hadn't seen it approach, but it was suddenly over the limo, and a moment later enclosed it entirely. He could see it out of either window on either side. It was long, smooth, and segmented. But other than that, there was nothing remarkable about it. D watched the segments go by and waited for them to pass. However, they didn't at any quick rate. Time dragged on for much longer than expected. Given the speed he estimated they were traveling at, he assumed they went several miles in that tunnel, and he assumed that was underground. As for how deep that went, there was no way for him to tell. Based on his mental clock, however, they were driving for at least a half hour. Perhaps the curvature was so gradual in the tunnel he didn't know that they had made a turn.

Yet at last, the limo abruptly came to a halt. It was fast, stopping almost on a dime and instantly despite the speed it was traveling at. Yet somehow, the interior wasn't violently upset. D wasn't even wearing a belt, and he barely shifted weight. The limousine quickly settled. The moment it had, the engine shut off. The agents, without a moment's hesitation, rose from their own positions and exited the vehicle. After they had done so, D followed suit. He quickly took his nodachi up with him as he made for the door. Once he moved out, he quickly rose to full height and put the weapon within his black trench coat. Then, he looked about and took in his surroundings.

There wasn't much in the area. He saw the long tunnel behind him stretching back out to where they had come from. Where they were right now was parked on a circular open area at the end of the tunnel. Round, white lights were above them periodically to illuminate the area. Ahead of him was a set of metal stairs, and beyond them was a circular opening into another area. It looked like it was locked, however, and that it would be very hard to penetrate. Some sort of closing mechanism was on it, but what it was D didn't know.

The agents quickly moved to one side. A gestured in front of him toward the doors. "That way please. Our superior is waiting for you."

D hesitated a moment. He still didn't like the idea of being under someone's thumb. However, he reminded himself he was on his job. He turned aside from the agents, and turned his attention to the door before him. He began to move in his calm yet focused manner. He walked past the car, not paying any mind to the driver or vehicle, but making his way toward the stairs in the back. He expected his motorcycle to be there when he returned. Soon he reached the stairs, and ascended them within moments. As he touched the top step, the hatch mechanism immediately disengaged. With a hiss, the two halves of the opening slid aside. D waited until the doors were fully open, and then walked inside. After doing so, the doors immediately closed behind him.

D halted just inside and took in his new surroundings. This room was simple as well. It was circular and metal, overlaid with metal panels over the interior. The biggest feature was a long, rectangular, metal meeting table in the middle of the room. There were numerous chairs fixed around the table, also simple and metal. Lamps were also installed over each.

D's eyes quickly looked up and focused on one man in particular, however: a new figure. Wearing a dark suit, his back to D, and a curl of smoke coming out from the front of his head, he stood there with his hands folded behind his back. He waited until the doors had closed behind D. Only then did he slowly turn around to look to the hunter. He then noticed that the suit was a tuxedo. The smoke came from a mellow cigar in his lips, and the man was distinctly Japanese. His eyes had a hard look in them, and his face was rough and ready. He looked like a rougher breed of human compared to the standard variety. D could tell he had some intelligence on him.

The man stepped forward to the table and took a long drag on his cigar. He then pulled it out, knocked some ashes off of it, and exhaled.

"You're late." He flatly stated. The voice and dialect was clearly Japanese. "Due to your insistence on us bringing that worthless motorcycle along."

"I wasn't aware I was keeping a schedule." D calmly answered, also in perfect Japanese. "And you are?"

The man extinguished his cigar on the table top. He seemed to have as much regard for his surroundings as D did. "I'm rather like yourself, Mr. Dracula…or is it D? I keep my personal information just that: personal. My alias is Gendo. At any rate, I'm not here to discuss myself. I'm here to explain why you're here and what we expect of you now that you are working for us." He gestured ahead of himself to the seat before D. "Sit."

The hunter looked down in front of him. He ignored the chair, but instead noticed that an open file was in front of it. It looked like it had the same pictures of the children and chamber as before, with more detail. D approached this file, keeping his gaze turned down on it as he walked forward. However, he did not do as he was told. He remained standing, and instead lowered a single black gloved hand to slowly turn the pages and examine what was there. Gendo waited for him to comply for a moment. However, he didn't do it, and in the end Gendo sighed and reached inside his tuxedo jacket for another mellow cigar.

"I'm late for a presentation to give you this briefing. I work in the biomechanical division of the United Nations. If you haven't heard of it, that's because no one has just yet. It's a far-reaching sector covering numerous new technologies, all of which we're interested in keeping secret for the time being. For the record, the information which you are receiving is classified and unauthorized disclosure is an international offense."

"I'll keep that in mind." D calmly answered as he turned another page.

"During the 1980's," Gendo finally began. "Japan, as an ally of the United States during the Cold War, began to develop a program designed to dramatically stimulate mental development, bordering on evolution within an individual rather than a population. Its goal was to establish subjects with definite abilities of telekinesis, telepathy, ESP, etc. and to pursue these abilities to the point of affecting basic fundamental forces of nature and physics. In other words, it was trying to literally make subjects that could perform mind over matter. Typically, the former Soviet Union and the United States had their own programs, but due to constraints on the ability to build up their own militaries, Japan was able to focus most of their resources on pursuing the development.

"Successes were mild to non-existent for most of the early subjects. Number 26, however, known only as Akira, was very successful. Too much, as a matter of fact. The destruction of Tokyo resulted, as you know. The lie was established that it was a thermonuclear weapon to prevent knowledge of the project from getting out, especially since Japan had come so far and was supposed to have only a defensive army.

"Akira was not destroyed but frozen near absolute zero. Japan believed that even incredible psionic power would be unable to free a body from that stasis. But a later subject, Number 41, managed to act as a catalyst to awaken Akira. As for 41, an unstable sadist named Tetsuo Shima, Akira in turn acted as a catalyst to him and brought him to his level, in the process risking the lives of everyone in Neo Tokyo and quite possibly all people on Earth."

Gendo gestured to the file. "About the only good that came from the incident was the insurance that the experiment could not be reproduced. All data files and facilities were destroyed save for a few records, most of which you see in front of you. The most advanced subjects, 23, 24, 25, 26, and 41, were all destroyed. But several international ships had been in the waters of Neo Tokyo prior to destruction, and many had been conducting research for some weeks. It was incomplete, and we thought that it would not be sufficient to allow them to complete the research.

"Yet on the conquering of Neo Tokyo, we found that some matter had survived. One of the surviving groups had preserved information regarding the operations some of the subjects had received as well as the formulas for psychotropic drugs. We were unable to recover it…and now matters are worse."

Here, Gendo reached over the table and grasped the edge of the file, and flipped to a new page. D didn't react as a new set of photos were revealed…ones with numerous blood-soaked bodies, uniformed children with cold, empty eyes, and other items of general ugliness and brutality.

"We believe this group picked it up." Gendo darkly continued. "We only know it by the codename the House. The most deadly and skilled of American operatives are there…and they make them too. They're quite familiar with taking children and processing them into soulless killing machines, and they're quite good at what they do. They even include voice commands into the mental brainwashing they do to their personnel for suicide commands. They don't report to any agency, making their leaders usually bad customers. However far that they've managed to get in their own mental programs, you can bet that they're personnel will be there as well."

D shut the folder in front of him. He looked up to Gendo afterward. The man looked up as well and stared the hunter straight in the eye. "That data is valuable and guarded by a killer force of the most deadly specialists in the world. We're creating another team even deadlier to take them out. You too will be given free reign to do whatever means necessary to locate, recover, and/or destroy the data. Your only requirement is to avoid revealing that you are working with the United Nations or any government. We have one lead for you to start with. A high-ranking officer, Commander Thorne, in House is eating breakfast in Budapest this morning. He'll point you to where the data is."

"Hungary is a bit far." D commented calmly.

Gendo didn't seem to notice. Instead, he produced a lighter from his tuxedo and used it to light the end of his mellow cigar. He was soon puffing away again. "You'll be meeting the other members now." He went on, reaching down to the table. He pressed a small button that was in front of his own chair. After doing so, he spoke seemingly into the table. "Start sending them in." He addressed, then released the button. Afterward, he resumed smoking his cigar.

Moments later, D turned his head to the sound of a new opening happening in the room. As he looked to the right wall, he noticed that a metal panel was sliding open, revealing a new, hidden door in the chamber. There could be any number of hidden doors in the room he realized. The opening stopped enlarging and clicked into place. Both D and Gendo were looking to it now, and saw that a figure was framed in the entrance.

It was a scrawny man, with his hands in his pockets and a casual, carefree look about him. He appeared youthful and energetic however. His eyes had a glare of mischief and wildness in them. He calmly strolled into the room with a rolling gait, whistling a bit to himself. His suit was pressed and new, looking fresh off the shelves. It was modern enough, but D couldn't say the same for the hair of the man. It was accentuated with a short afro and sideburns. It would have been almost laughable to look at if he was a bit more humorous. A long cigarette hung from his mouth, which he removed and exhaled from as the door closed behind him.

"Nice special effects, G-Man." The new arrival stated in a somewhat carefree tone. "Where do you keep the Batcave?"

D cracked an eyebrow underneath his hat. The man had a familiar look about him, but it could not be the same person. The one he remembered was from the 1930's. Perhaps it was a distant relative. He turned his head back to Gendo. "Trainee agent?"

The new arrival immediately looked indignant, though D didn't see it. Gendo turned his head a bit and gestured to the other one. "Actually, you will be working with Mr. Lupin. D," Here, he gestured to the new arrival. "Arsene Lupin the Fourth."

"Lupin the _Third_, actually." The man corrected, walking up to the hunter. D looked to him, but didn't move or show any change of expression. He kept his smile as he looked over D, but kept on walking forward toward him. At last, he came to a stop right next to him. "The Fourth title is just to keep from confusing people, like those unable to extend their names past a single English letter."

D did not answer.

"You're this D I've heard of, right?" Lupin asked. "You're some kind of hunter, right? What do you hunt? Bounties? Rhino?"

"…Vampires." D darkly answered after a moment. His tone was ice, and his eyes stayed hidden.

Lupin raised a single eyebrow to that. He stood stunned for a moment with his cigarette protruding from his mouth. "Rrrright…" He slowly answered as it burned and ashes slowly fell from it. "Um…remind me not to talk to you again unless I need to."

D turned away from Lupin and toward Gendo. "I'm afraid that this man will only be a hindrance to me."

Lupin immediately reacted to that. "Hey!"

"Do you really think you can make that assumption after knowing him ten seconds?" Gendo responded.

"I have more than enough experience to know." D answered. "What is his contribution supposed to be?"

"People have frequently misjudged Mr. Lupin, especially during the 1970's." Gendo responded. "Despite his appearances, he is quite possibly the most uncatchable man alive. He's a master of disguise, decoding, breaking and entering, and can predict a trap from any scenario. He also managed to elude police for years. He was the only member of the group more difficult to track down than you, D. It wasn't until we put out an 'ad' that we were able to recruit him."

"I don't usually cooperate with governments." Lupin casually added, seeming to be more at ease now that he was being praised. "But when I see something I want I go for it. I have three friends serving life sentences in England. I help on this little routine theft, I get all three amnesty."

D looked back to him. "…I do recall several national reports regarding an expert international criminal during the 1970's named Lupin the Third." He answered after a pause. "But that was over forty years ago at this point."

That only seemed to make Lupin more cheerful. "Heh," He answered. "It was wasn't it? And I'm not a day over twenty-five, eh? That's thanks to my resourceful nature. I made it a specialty of mine to seek out and 'procure' artifacts from the world over. I just happened to find the real live fountain of youth. Neat eh?" He grinned and gestured grandly to himself. "I look pretty good right now, I'm sure. But don't get me wrong, it's taken me a while to get to this point. You see, I drank a bit too much that evening. When I woke up after that mickey I was back to diaper-sized. But now that I'm back to the prime of my life, I'm ready to show the world how many new tricks this old wolf managed to learn growing up in the past two decades.

"As for experience," He continued, raising a finger in front of D's face and grinning more slyly. (D again did not react.) "I'm overy seventy at this point. From the looks of you, that puts me at about…say…what? Fifty? Fifty-five years ahead of you?"

D kept his eyes hidden for a moment, but then slowly raised his head. For a brief moment, his own cold eye pierced Lupin's, and for a moment, the confidence of the man melted and his skin turned white as his grin turned into a gulp.

"…Eight hundred and ten years behind me."

Lupin swallowed a lump. His finger slowly returned to where it had been before, and then he withdrew back to his previous position. "Er…keeping that promise not to talk to you now. Yeah…" He answered mildly, rather like a scared dog now.

D lowered his hat rim again, and he turned back to Gendo. "I hope the rest of the members are a bit more down to Earth."

"Oh no, young man. We get off Earth after this point."

D raised his head in response, not showing surprise, but genuinely startled nonetheless. The new voice, a wily, small, mischievous, and feminine, had come out of nowhere. His muscles tensed, and his hand nearly instinctively reached for his nodachi. Lupin, on his part, already a bit unnerved, suddenly shot up on one leg and stiffened in fear as if ice had just been dumped down his neck. Even Gendo looked up, but his shock was far less than anyone else's. D's sharp vision darted around the room, looking for the source of the voice. Soon, it landed on the area in front of one of the chairs on the opposite side of the table. He saw something most shocking.

The very air suddenly seemed to tear open in front of him. Space and light seemed to suddenly become a tangible material. It was as if he hadn't really been looking at a room, but had been looking at some curtain or fake setup in front of him. At any rate, it continued to tear, and soon formed a large black hole in it. It was large enough to fit a man-sized body for it. The opening was empty, and D could see nothing inside of it. However, it did not stay totally empty for long. A form began to come out of it. Rather, the booted feet of a form came out, as if something was walking out from the blackness. As it did, the light began to come down on it from the room, illuminating it and revealing its details. As D and the others watched, a humanoid did emerge. The person was small…the size of a small child. The person wore a small work set of clothes, simple yet having a somewhat different style to it, one that seemed a bit more…advanced. As the person continued to emerge, D saw that it was a female, covered with a head of long red hair arranged in long drooping spikes dangling behind her brow, tied back with a band. It seemed like a child, but D noticed something almost immediately. He could see it in her eyes. They were not human. They were slightly narrower, with an almost oval shape to them. D could also detect slight differences in the retina color…a shade unlike any he had ever seen among any living, or nonliving, creature. They also had the look of wisdom in them. D had seen it countless times before, not only in the eyes of vampires who looked young but had centuries on their side, but also in his own.

The apparent child stepped out of the hole in space as if it was no more than a curtain opening. Once out, it readily closed up again behind her. She, unmiffed and smiling plainly, kept her arms calmly folded behind her. She stepped forward and up to the chair as the opening finished, and then placed her hands on the chair to support herself. She looked around calmly, seeing the three men looking at her. D hadn't lost his cold appearance, but he kept tensed up. Gendo had relaxed fully now. Lupin looked nervous as ever, staring at her like she was going to sprout another head and bite him any minute.

"Well, you're certainly all bright and chipper-looking." She commented calmly, looking even a bit upbeat. "Sorry I'm late. I was working when I got the call."

"Not a problem, Miss Washu." Gendo calmly answered, resuming puffing his mellow cigar.

However, the woman was indignant at that. "Call me 'Chibi Washu', or the deal is off." She snapped back.

"My apologies, Chibi Washu." Gendo immediately answered. After that, he turned to D again. "Miss…Chibi Washu will be your resident scientist and providing your group with transportation."

"Scientist?" Lupin inquired incredulously. "Mystery girl from the Fifth Dimension? Shouldn't she be in school? Or at Men In Black HQ?"

D was more subtle, but still regarding the girl with suspicion. "…You're not human."

Washu raised an eyebrow to that and turned to him. "You're a bright boy, aren't you? You said that with some conviction; would have made a nice student. I'm what the people of this world would consider an extraterrestrial…or alien as a more layman's term. I am also the greatest genius in the universe, excelling in all forms of science known to human, jurai, and all points north and south."

Lupin relaxed a bit after all this, smoothing himself out and beginning to regain his previous position. "Not bad for a little girl like yourself. How long you been studying?"

Washu gave a casual shrug. "Oh, I stopped keeping track of how many years I spent doing anything after the first ten thousand."

Lupin stared dumbly in response.

Another opening sound happened at that moment. The now four people in the room turned their heads to the source. A door much similar to the one that Lupin had entered through now came from the opposite side of the room. But as it did, D suddenly heard a old voice emit from his left hand. It was audible this time, but everyone turned and so only D noticed it.

"D… I sense…you know what."

But D already knew. He could sense it as well. He always did eventually when he got close enough to one on a hunt. The air of dank age… The feeling of cold air… The ice running down one's neck… That sensation that made blood still in the veins… He had been on far too many jobs to mistake it for anything else.

As the door opened, the lights seemed to dim around the new figure. This one too was small. She was also female. That was obvious, despite the dimming of light around her. Also, despite the dimming light, her eyes stood out…deep and red, like coals in the night. Like Washu, they too had the look of age and knowledge, but there was no merriment in them. Her clothing was simpler than the alien's, taking the form of a young schoolgirl outfit. Her hair was cut short with a bun on one side of her head and braids dangling from the other side. Her lips were tight and drawn into a cold, remorseless smile. Not even the faintest trace of love or compassion was in her features. All D saw was the hunger…the raw, primitive, yet all-consuming hunger he had seen countless times before burning in _their _eyes. Her skin was pale, and despite the dim light, as she walked in, she seemed to carry a shadow…even a cloud…of darkness around her. Yet as she continued to enter, it turned out it wasn't her shadow at all…but some form seeming to be made out of darkness itself. A cloaked figure was following closely behind her. Its face was concealed behind a stoic, white mask. Each footstep echoed as she entered, and all in the room had suddenly seemed to turn cold and silent…even death-like…because of her.

Her eyes were burning in her cheerless gaze, and were focused firmly forward. She did not take in her surroundings as D had, and as such she did not notice him at first. Therefore, he pressed the advantage, and tried to suppress every instinct in his body, in particular the one hand, from telling him to pull out his sword and slice the head off the girl in one fell stroke. Instead, he announced her before Gendo gave the name.

"…_The_ Princess Miyu…"

The girl immediately turned her head to the voice, startled that someone had known her name. But the moment he turned to D, her initial surprise suddenly turned. Anger flooded the hunger in her eyes, and her hands tightened into fists. The mask of the figure behind her turned to D, but showed nothing else. She immediately called out in a sharp voice to Gendo. "You never told me _he_ was part of your little band."

"I never told you about any of them." Gendo calmly answered, puffing again on the cigar. "Mr. Dracula will be leading the group."

Now a true anger came over the one called Miyu. The one behind her still didn't react. D, on his part, continued to suppress his instincts and hold back. At last, the girl turned to Gendo. "I'm leaving then. I don't know why I ever had the stomach to consider siding with humans in the first place."

Lupin rolled his eyes. "Another underage/alien?"

"No. A vampire." D immediately corrected, never taking his gaze off the girl. Miyu turned her head back to him at that. "An old and powerful one as well."

Lupin's eyes bulged. "You things are real?" He addressed the newcomer.

Miyu ignored him. She stared silently at D for a few moments. D stared silently right back. At last, she cracked a small smile. "So you at least respect my powers." She stated. "Or do you fear them? Is that why you haven't come after me yet?"

"I'm a hunter." D answered without change. "I do this as work. No one has hired me yet to attack you. I don't assault vampires that behave themselves."

Miyu only seemed to grow in anger at that. But before she could react again, D decided to try something. Though he knew his left hand would love for him to just let Miyu turn and walk out of here, he was curious. He had enough encounters with Miyu in the past to know she was not only dangerous and heartless…but carried out a paradox of allegedly hating humans and yet not openly preying on them. He turned to Gendo and gestured to the new arrivals. "You're better off without her. She's very dangerous, and there is nothing in the world that you could offer her that would make her assist you, simply because you're human."

Gendo was calm in response. "Miss Miyu is exceptional at what she does. We feel she could be of great use to the group."

"Her only interest will be to feed." D replied calmly. It was a blatant lie. Vampires were ruled by their hunger always in the end, but there was more to them as well. He said this for Miyu's sake. He knew she was growing angrier with him at this. "That is the only reason she involves herself in anything. That is the only purpose of a vampire."

To this, Miyu gave a loud snort of disgust, causing all attention to shift back to her. She sneered at D. "I should have expected an ignorant reply like that from a half-breed such as yourself. I've actually been doing an indirect favor for the precious humans you love so much. You're not the only hunter here. I myself am involved in hunting Shinmas."

D, though he showed nothing, was surprised at this. "…I didn't realize this project had anything to do with Shinmas."

Lupin looked confused again. "What the hell's a Shinma, anyway?"

"Ah, that's a very good question!" Washu suddenly spoke up, attracting the rogue's attention to her. To his surprise, Washu seemed to have somehow instantly changed clothes into that of some sort of college professor, complete with gown, hat, and a pair of glasses hanging low on her nose. She clapped her hands, and immediately a book fell from nowhere in the sky and landed in her hands, already opened to a certain page. "Shinma:" She read. "A monstrous, subhuman creature. Delights and feeds off pain and suffering and seeks to create and perpetuate it."

"Uh…" Lupin answered, forgetting his question and instead wondering how Washu had managed to do all of that.

"I feel that there might be one involved." Miyu responded. "That makes this my concern and responsibility. I cannot depend on any mere human…" She narrowed her gaze darkly. "…or dhampire…" She accented. "…to destroy it. I would have performed this mission myself but I lacked the ability to find this Shinma. Once this group has escorted me to the location, I will finish things myself from there."

"I thought you said you were quitting." D answered unmiffed.

Miyu's eyes relaxed again. She paused for a moment. It seemed to D as if she was weighing her options. In all honesty, D was surprised. Miyu never seemed to have much interest in destroying the offshoots of her species. She was as overconfident and heartless as the next vampire, but if she was pausing this long then she at last had as much if not more hatred for Shinmas. Finally, her gaze narrowed slightly again, and she turned back to Gendo. "For the sake of executing the Shinma, I am accompanying them and following this hunter's orders. Once it is dead, neither this group nor your mission will mean anything to me."

For a while, the scientist paused and said nothing, as if considering the matter himself before giving a reaction. "Very well." Gendo answered at last, giving a slight nod.

Lupin's door began to open at that moment. All in the room turned and looked to it once again. Lupin at this point tensed up, expecting another monster to pop out this time. But as the doors slid aside and the one behind began to enter, it didn't show anything particularly strange. It was a man who entered. He was pretty well-built, more than D at any rate. His clothing was loose and very simple, seeming to consist only of a light, cut-off t-shirt and loose pants. A one-barrel shotgun was in one hand, and D immediately saw that a sheath was strapped to his back and was katana-sized. D narrowed his unseen gaze at him. D noticed a few other distinct features, however. This man too had that look of age in his eyes. There was also a long scar across his neck, seeming to go all the way around his neck, even beneath the crop of black hair sprouting from his head. Unlike Miyu, this one did not have a dark presence about him…but D still sensed danger. It was of a different quality of danger though, one that came from a human rather than that of a supernatural creature. D rarely felt this. It was practically an alien feeling to him. And yet…he felt almost a greater sense of danger coming from this man than from Miyu or any of the others around him so far.

The man walked readily straight to D, pushing past Lupin a bit so that he drew a bit nearer, until he was facing the hunter directly. Then he halted. His own gaze, hard, calculating, and intelligent, burned at D. His face was rock hard and expressionless.

Gendo gestured to him. "Mr. Dracula, this is Himuro Gemma. Mr. Gemma, this is D Dracula. He will be leading our mission."

In a purely automatic fashion, Gemma extended his hand out to D. D did not move an inch in response. When Gemma realized he wasn't going to shake, he promptly removed his hand, but did not show shock or any emotional change.

Lupin pulled at his collar. "Well, what's his niche? Werewolf? Frankenstein's monster? A hydrated mummy?"

Gemma didn't answer. He didn't look away from D in the least. The hunter didn't look away either.

"Gemma is a trained and skilled assassin." Gendo answered. "He comes from a rather selective ninja clan that has deep roots in Japanese history."

Miyu chuckled a bit at this. "Is that all?" She chided. "Ninjas are extinct. What good is it to keep a species that can't keep its own survival up?"

At that, D noticed Gemma crack a small smile for a moment, as if he knew a private joke.

"Gemma has certain abilities and experience on his side." Gendo explained. "As an assassin, his record is, how shall we say…impressive."

"How many?" D finally asked.

Only when D asked did Gemma finally dignify the room with a response. His voice was dark and deep…and he smiled as he spoke. "One gets into a mood in the act. It clouds the memory and I never follow up. But I've done it long enough to the point where I wouldn't be happy doing anything else…unless I could earn enough to retire in rather comfortable settings."

"And you will be earning enough from this mission, I trust." D responded.

"Most certainly so." Gemma answered. "There is a certain supply of gold that the United Nations recovered. You could say I've had my eyes on it for a very long time, and it has increased considerably in value since I first appraised it. It will be mine after this mission is over."

"You seem confident that we will survive this mission." D answered.

Now, a real look of merriment came over Gemma.

"I survive _everything_." He spoke in a near-hiss.

D stared a moment longer, but after a moment another hiss answered Gemma's. This time, it came from behind D, back at the front door. It slid open and revealed the same exterior as before. There were some changes, however. The hunter did not focus on these, but instead focused on the newest arrival. This one looked the most unusual yet as he framed the doorway. A frown was on his face of boredom and irritation. He was dressed in a red kimono, and a necklace of teeth were around his neck. The teeth were of an unknown animal to D, and the fabric was likewise unknown. The man was of average build, but with bare feet and tightened skin. Both his fingernails and toenails were long, claw-like even. His head was covered with long, thick, gray hair. Hanging from his side was a sheath and beaten handle for a katana. Yet more indications were on this man to show he too was not human. He had no ears on the sides of his head…but instead a pair of long, pointed, cat-like ears trimmed with fur protruded from the top of his head. In his grit teeth were a set of very carnal incisors. Lastly, his eyes were a vivid, animal yellow color. He didn't walk in when the door was open, but remained defiant and disagreeable. His eyes shone with youth and inexperience. He was the first one who was as young as he appeared. However, D recognized this man. And if he was standing before him, then he had to be much, much older than he looked…

"I thought we were leaving now." The man snapped. "I want to get this damn mission over with so I can get my fee."

Gendo ignored him and gestured to him for all of the other members to see. "Ah yes. Our swordsman, and a samurai of sorts. His name is-"

"Inuyasha."

Everyone looked to D at this, for he was the one who had spoke, and an air of intrigue was in his voice. The man/creature, Inuyasha, turned and looked to him as well. When he saw him, he cracked a half-smile. "So, you're still alive and kicking after five-hundred years." He commented on seeing him. "Guess you still have a perfect record on vampire kills."

D still sounded confused on seeing him. "You're…still hanyou?"

"Uh, you two know each other?" Lupin suddenly asked.

"I met this guy centuries ago, when he was roaming the countryside looking for a vampire." Inuyasha answered. "But it's only been a couple of years for me. There's things called Time Trees in my age that can connect to different eras. And I happened to use one to come here."

Miyu also raised an eyebrow. "Hanyou?" She inquired, echoing D. Then, she suddenly seemed to notice it. "Ah yes. You have a trace of dog spirit in you. But you also stink of human."

Inuyasha immediately snapped his head to her. "I get enough of that in my own time period, lady. You think I'm weak just because of that, we'll take this outside and I'll show you just how human I am."

D thought this over for a moment. So…the Inuyasha he was looking at was from the past. Obviously he hadn't gathered all the shards of the Jewel of Four Souls yet if he was still a half-demon. That was interesting. If D hadn't driven off most of his emotion long ago, and if Inuyasha was more of a friend rather than just an annoyance he had run into for about five minutes, he might be tempted to tell him what pain was awaiting him and those he cared about in his quest for that Jewel. But that was not the case, and D felt it wiser to not disturb history. He held his peace and stayed standing still.

"…What fee did they promise you?" He asked at last.

Inuyasha immediately snapped to him instead. "None of your business."

However, Gendo was more than willing to answer. Immediately, he produced a vial and held it overhead. The others all turned to look to it, and saw that inside it, three small slivers of some sort of purple jem gleamed inside it. Inuyasha grit his teeth at Gendo doing that, seeming to get angry at him for revealing their existence. Lupin blinked incredulously.

"That's it? You can get better rocks at a clearance pawn shop…or a playground."

"Oh, I don't think those are diamonds." Washu immediately announced. Again, seeming to pull things out of holes in the air, she produced a small calculator device and began to type into it. "Those shards don't conform to any molecular structure, and they lack any atomic composition whatsoever…"

"They are parts of a special jewel that existed in fragments in the time of our friend and half-dog demon Inuyasha here." Gendo explained. "They mean a lot only to him. Though they are scattered in his time, they managed to also find their way, or at least a few have, into ours. His reward will be them if he succeeds."

Inuyasha scowled and crossed his arms again. "Yeah, yeah." He answered. "I've heard it already. There's no need for them to. Let's just get this over with."

"Right." Gendo answered with a nod. "We just have one final member. She will be brought in now."

With that, Gendo looked to the entrance. D himself did again as well. Now, he analyzed what was going on outside. The black limo was still there, but there were more people outside now. Three guards, each one of them armed with assault rifles, were surrounding a single prisoner. They led the prisoner now up the stairs, very slowly, into the room.

D saw that it was a young woman. Her eyes had an inner power and determination within them, but other than that they showed nothing. She was dressed in orange prison colors and attire. As she slowly made her way up the stairs, D saw that she was chained at both the wrists and ankles, and that both of those were linked together as well. In addition, another chain went to her head. A helmet seemed to be chained down on it that had some sort of electrical device working on it. But beneath it he could still see a short amount of black hair. This one was also definitely Japanese. She had a few scars on her, but other than that her skin was still fairly smooth. She was probably a woman who would be rather attractive if her face wasn't so serious. At any rate, she was as silent as the rest of them on coming in.

"And this one, hopefully, will not cause the most trouble." Gendo continued. "She's an inmate, I'm afraid. She and her husband are both currently carrying out life sentences for crimes of espionage and sabotage against the Japanese government. Don't let her age fool you. She's gained quite a reputation and record. She was also instrumental in carrying out the destruction of Number 41. It is because of that she did not receive the death penalty. She and her husband will both get amnesty if they carry this out, and due to her involvement with the Akira Project she is probably the best agent to have on your side."

The woman was now in the room. The guards looked to Gendo, who gave them a nod. With some hesitation, they sighed and undid the restraints on her arms and legs. Once they had done so, they stood back. The young woman remained standing plain and tall. Gendo whistled, attracting D's attention. Once he did, he saw the man slide a small key across the table and toward the hunter. The hunter slowly reached down and picked it up.

"That's for you, team leader, to use if and when you feel it is necessary to remove the helmet from her." Gendo responded. "You see, our little miss here was able to survive Number 41 only because she has extra-sensory conduction potential or ESCP or, in laymen's terms, is a medium. However, her encounters with the project members resulted in the awakening of abilities within her own mind. She seems capable of handling them without drugs or surgery, which means they will probably not advance much, but still she requires precaution. That is a bomb on her head that will detonate if she attempts to stimulate the parts of the brain where the abilities are centered."

D turned and looked to the woman. She showed nothing in response. She stared forward, and did not even look at the hunter. After a moment, he turned back to Gendo. "…What's her name?"

"She refused to ever tell us anything but her first name, including her age, birthplace, mission, or anything else. It was her husband who told us their relation. She calls herself Kei."

D looked back to the woman. She hadn't changed. He stayed silent for a moment. "Well Kei," He said at last, and as he did so he tossed the key toward her. The woman, a bit startled at this sudden action, turned to him, and just in time raised her hand to catch it. "I'll want you at your best for this mission."

D didn't know why he had said that exactly. It sounded more like something a regular human would say. Perhaps it was a part of his humanity spiking out from inside of him again. That happened every once in a while. More likely, however, he hated being addressed by anything other than "D", including by his father's name. A small part of him that still enjoyed humor wanted to see Gendo shaken up. Besides…if he was more frightened of this woman than characters like Miyu and Inuyasha, then he needed to get in touch with reality.

Kei paused for a moment, stunned by this gesture from D. However, after a moment, she instead turned her attention to Gendo. For the first time, the man looked genuinely unnerved, although only a slight bit. The guards were a different matter, and they began to shake and repress their urges to raise their weapons. At any rate, Kei took the key to the helmet and readily undid it. As she pulled it off, it was obvious from the markings on her skin that it had been on a while. She cracked the smallest of smiles at Gendo while doing so. D could read that look well. She was thinking something like, _It would be so easy now to put you down on the ground and make you feel just like me whenever you were interrogating me. The feeling that you're afraid while I was not makes me feel even better…_ But at last, she simply dropped the helmet on the ground, released her smile, and then let the key fall as well. She didn't give D another look or even a thank you.

Gendo's own nervousness vanished, and he himself calmed. "Right." He stated, then turned back to D. "From here on out, it will be up to you and the members of the team to follow up on the lead and complete the mission. You won't be returning to this facility following completion." At this, Gendo reached inside his jacket again. A moment later, he pulled out a small brown envelope marked with big red letters: "Classified: Team Leader's Eyes Only". He placed this envelope on the table and slid it over to D. D immediately stopped it with his own hand. "That envelope is to be opened only on mission completion. It will tell you what to do from there. Everything else is in your hands. Remember…you are not working for the United Nations and as such you are not under their jurisdiction. You may use whatever means necessary to complete this mission, but should you be captured or killed the government will disavow any knowledge of your existence. The limousine outside is waiting to take you all to any 'starting point' within the city that you would like."

Washu smiled and readily stepped away from her chair. "Great! Just take us outside to a wide open space and I'll have my cabbit brought around."

Lupin sighed and shook his head at Kei. "First normal girl and she's married…"

* * *

NOTE: Ok...

Lupin, my rogue, is obviously from Lupin the Third; Inuyasha, my beast, is obviously from Inuyasha; and Miyu, my vampire, is obviously from Vampire Princess Miyu. (Hellsing fans are probably angry at me right now for not using Alucard, but the story is young... Also, Miyu fans will probably be angry at me more than once during this story, because Miyu might be OOC. I know the least about her out of all the characters, and though I did a little research she might still be off. If I make any serious errors, tell me.)

Chibi Washu, my scientist, is from the Tenchi Muyo series. Kei, my spy, is from Akira. (A few notes about her. First of all, the only name she is ever given in the manga or Anime is Kei, so she has no last name. Second, at the conclusion of the Akira manga, the survivors of the disaster, including Kaneda and Kei, succede Neo Tokyo's wreckage from the rest of Japan to form a new country. That's what all of the dialogue was referring too.)

Genma is from Ninja Scroll, in case any of you didn't remember the name. Gendo and his position is supposed to allude to Neon Genesis Evangelion, the events of which have not yet occured in this storyline.


	3. Skirmish

**Chapter Three**

Soon, the seven of them were disembarking as one from the meeting room. D would have been in the lead, but Washu was already dashing ahead of him like an excited child. She was rather juvenile in appearance and mannerisms, D began to realize. No one took D's side. Inuyasha, though scowling all the way, was the closest. Gemma was nearby too. Lupin was also fairly close, but only to avoid Miyu and the large character following him. Bringing up the rear was Kei, hanging back but not dragging her feet.

Inuyasha turned his head and glared at the character with Miyu as he descended the steps. "If I would have known we could have brought our own people along, I would have. I thought there were only supposed to be seven of us."

Miyu immediately narrowed her gaze at the half-beast. "Larve follows me everywhere."

Lupin looked to him, and seemed to shiver. "He a mute or something?"

"He is death to whoever I tell him to kill." Miyu flatly answered. "If you can't keep your yapping mouth shut, I'll ask him to make you quiet."

Lupin only was encouraged by this. "That's no way to talk to your elders."

Washu reached the vehicle first. She immediately went for the front door and unhooked it, then quickly slid inside. "I'll drive!" She merrily offered after already taking the spot.

"Fine." D simply answered.

Inuyasha looked around in a bit of confusion. "Drive? Drive what? I don't see any horses or anything."

Everyone turned and looked at Inuyasha incredulously for a moment at that. Afterward, D merely turned and moved to the car. The others began to follow him one by one. Lupin shook his head at the still confused-looking Inuyasha. "Man, did they dig you up from under a rock?"

Inuyasha scowled at him in response. Lupin grinned sheepishly and threw his hands up innocently. D opened the door and calmly went inside, not bothering to hold it for anyone else. Gemma followed immediately after. Miyu was next, and the others kept their distance from the monstrous thing known now as Larve following her. After she was in Kei followed afterward. Lupin was next, hanging a little too close to Kei, and finally Inuyasha, grumbling at his own embarrassment followed.

Inside, each of the members sat as far away from each other as possible. D didn't seem to care, calmly crossing his legs and not letting it irritate him. Gemma sat cross-legged nearby, however. He was the only one sitting reasonably close. Inuyasha seemed the most uncomfortable with sitting down in there, and disagreeable the whole time. The engine was fired up, and a moment later, a squeal of tires on rubber was heard. Inuyasha perked his head up, and a moment later was thrown forward and to the floor as the car took off. A whistle and yell was heard of front, while Inuyasha, shocked at the noises and how he was thrown forward, grumbled and cursed and picked himself back off of the ground.

"What the hell is this thing!" He snapped.

"A horseless carriage." Miyu answered with some amusement.

Inuyasha snarled and began to creep back into his chair.

Lupin whistled himself and eased back in his own seat. He looked around the assembly in the limousine, and began to see that all of them were rather dark and gloomy faces. After a moment, he frowned a bit, and turned to Kei. She looked to the ground, not saying or doing anything. He offered a smile. "Hey there. You haven't said much."

Kei was silent.

Lupin leaned in a bit closer. "A pretty thing like you shouldn't be that sad looking. You must have a pretty lucky husband if you're so devot-"

Kei suddenly looked up to Lupin, and spoke for the first time. "My husband taught me how to recognize men who only had one thing on their minds. Shove it."

Lupin merely grinned in response. "She talks! And she's feisty."

"Don't annoy her if she doesn't want to be annoyed." D flatly spoke up all of the sudden, not moving another inch otherwise.

Gemma cracked a smile at that. "Ah. The tall, strong, chivalrous type. You just attract more women this way, don't you?"

D said nothing in response. Gemma smiled a bit longer, but then looked away. Miyu smiled a bit and leaned back herself.

"Ending this mission won't take long." She confidently assured. "When we find this contact, he will do anything I tell him after I am done with him. Normally I would save this for an individual who would be more at a point when I could grant them happiness, but-"

"We're not doing it that way." D flatly answered.

Miyu immediately turned to him. "And why not?" She answered accusingly.

"Because I told you not to."

"Oh, so you intend to push this leader position, eh? You are aware that we are allowed to use any means necessary. Why slow us down with your sentiments?"

D did not answer.

Miyu sneered. "Or are you just planning on slowing me down? Why aren't you getting some guts for a change? You certainly didn't have any qualms about how you killed all of those vampires. Not that I care, except why not extend the same courtesy to the other half of your-"

Miyu didn't have a chance to finish, for at that moment all of the people in the car were violently tossed about. With a squeal of the brakes, the entire limousine was suddenly coming to a sharp halt. Everyone showed some degree of surprise in return to this, and quickly all thoughts of discussion or violence came to a stop. D himself had to uncross his legs and brace himself on either side. But immediately, his attention turned to the windows on either side, analyzing the situation. He saw that they were outside now, having come out of the tunnel again. But he didn't have much time to think about that, as the entire car was violently rocked by twin explosions. Fire and smoke bellowed outside both in front of and behind the limo. The vibrations lifted the car up slightly both in front of and behind the car. This only served to throw more people around in the car, for none of them had the foresight to put on their seatbelts.

For a moment, everyone was tumbled about. Larve seemed to not have a rear to sit on, so he managed to stay upright, and quickly helped Miyu up to her feet with a white hand protruding from the black shroud around him. The others quickly scrambled up, and noticed that the car was not moving. D didn't waste a moment. Once recovered, he quickly moved over to the door and with a single foot easily kicked it open. With that done, he rapidly came out of the car and stepped out into the night.

A quick look around immediately revealed a few things. There was a slope on either side of the road here, one rather high and fairly difficult to scale quickly. In front of them, the road was blasted and in flames, towering in an inferno and definitely impassible. Behind them, the tunnel they had just emerged in was now collapsed. A few small stones were now falling to the ground. Fire was still burning there and smoking into the sky. There was no easy way out. The other team members began to come out as well, although Washu did not. D didn't think of her that much right now, because at the moment it seemed they had other things to worry about…

In addition to being surrounded by flames and hills, the group was likewise surrounded by gunmen. At least, D assumed they were gunmen. They had rather large weapons that had braces on them to support at the waist. They looked like some variation on miniguns, only with ammo boxes rather than belts. Contrary to what Hollywood showed, however, a minigun was a mounted unit that required an electrical supply. If these were analogous, they had to be something cutting edge. The humanoid figures were clad in fat fabric across their body, obviously some bullet-proof design. Their heads were hooded and goggled, showing nothing of their expressions. At the moment, D saw that they surrounded them on every side.

The other members quickly fanned out around D, and likewise looked about the area. They said nothing, but stayed quiet for the moment. In the silence, the fires around them slowly crackled and burned. The six continued to look, and Washu stayed inside the car. Lupin whistled a bit uneasily, and slowly began to reach down into his pockets.

"I assume you all want something." D finally addressed to the crowd.

"Give us the psychic." One finally addressed. His voice was altered, but his words were clear. "We might let the rest of you live if you do so now."

Kei said nothing in response to that. She merely glared at the crowd around them.

D was also calm. "…If we refuse?"

Every gun around them rotated into the ready position. "There is no way any of you can avoid, or survive, this onslaught. We have a bead on all of you. I will count to three."

Lupin merely shrugged in reply. "Oh well…can't very well blame me for doing this then."

With that, in a flash, Lupin suddenly ripped out a baretta from his jacket, aimed at the knee of the speaking man, and fired a shot. However, much to his shock and everyone else's, the shot didn't even make it to the fabric to be absorbed. Instead, a faint outline of light appeared in front of the soldier, and the bullet ricocheted into the night. None of the soldiers even flinched.

"We each have a new type of over shield enhancing our armor. It is impossible for any of you to even kill one of us." The man confidently answered. "One."

Miyu merely cracked a smile. Lupin swallowed and stepped back. D began to reach over his shoulder and grasp his nodachi.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man cautiously warned. "Hands off the weapons. Two."

Kei slid back a little. Inuyasha lowered his hand toward his own blade. Gemma began to slide his katana out. The soldiers stared a bit incredulously at the group before them. Some of them even began to snicker at them.

The man shook his head. "Idiots. Very well. I don't care if you're alive or dead. Thr-"

But the man didn't get a chance to finish. In a flash, a shadow had suddenly enveloped him, and an icy white hand closed around his throat, choking him. Only a short gagging sound came out. The other soldiers turned to look, and were shocked to see that a shadow was turning around the man. Suddenly, he was raised off the ground, tossed about in the air for a moment, and then suddenly slammed back to the ground with such force that bones were heard breaking in response. Immediately, a white face emerged from the shadows, clad in a phantom mask, and glared at the other nearby soldiers. Now, terror struck them rather than boldness. They forgot about the six below them and turned their attention to the monster who had just befallen them, turning their guns to it. They immediately opened fire, and huge bursts of light and bullets erupted from their barrels and struck the thing. The bullets merely sank into its inky blackness, and the menacing creature continued to hover over the ground. In all the confusion, D hadn't even noticed that Larve had moved.

But now, the remaining members suddenly leapt on their attackers. D charged forward toward one soldier. The man turned and saw him coming, and tried to fire, but before he could D already brought his nodachi down. Pieces of broken gun went everywhere, and a huge slash materialized in the man's clothing. Another unit nearby attempted to fire, but D seized the first one in front of him, spun him around, and then used the back of his bulletproof clothing as a shield. He quickly rushed forward, and then slashed out with his nodachi to stab the next man through the shoulder. The soldier groaned and dropped his gun, and D quickly dispatched the one he was holding onto by smashing his own forehead into his.

Inuyasha charged forward and smashed the palm of his clawed hand into the first soldier in front of him. The man went flying and hit the ground hard, blood coming out of his hood on doing so. The beast then turned and backhanded the next one, sending him flying backwards as well. Two more soldiers started to fire at him then, but he quickly charged toward one, brandished his claws, and in doing so cut the man's weapon to pieces. He seized the soldier by the neck and pulled him into the air, and then suddenly cried out in a wince of pain. He turned and looked, and saw that one of the bullets had tore through the side of his neck, and he was bleeding. But rather than go down, as the soldier who shot him expected, the creature snarled, turned, and then threw the soldier he was throttling at the other one as if he was a projectile weapon. Inuyasha growled, snapped his bleeding neck, and then went to attack more.

D kept an eye on Miyu, but she was doing well without killing people. She calmly walked toward three enemy units at once, letting them blast her for all they were worth and smiling as each shot evaporated into nothing against her own shield. As she closed in on them, she calmly reached out and touched the first in the gut with two fingers. As if he was stung by poison, he groaned and collapsed. She made a cutting motion at the next one, and he grasped his neck and likewise fell. The third one was maniacal at that point, struggling at point-blank range to make Miyu even flinch. The girl vampire merely blew him a small kiss, and he went limp as a noodle. Larve flew by a moment later, two soldiers dangling in his pale hands. He smashed them together against each other, then discarded them to the ground.

Gemma was by far the most brutal. Dashing forward, he executed a quick cross slash to disable the first. Another soldier moved in to shoot him, but he quickly bent over, kicked up to knock the gun out of the way, then dipped his weapon in to stab the man in the gut. He spun over his back as he fell, just in time to slice the next one's arm off before going to his neck. For a moment, D thought of moving in to stop Gemma. But before he could, the first fallen soldier suddenly got up, pulled out a one barrel shotgun, and aimed for the back of the man's head.

Abruptly, the shot was fired, and the middle of Gemma's head exploded in an eruption of blood, bone, and brain tissue. For a moment, the battle halted. Lupin looked up from the wrecked car nervously. Kei gasped at the sight…despite all the brutality she too had seen in her life. Miyu turned a glance to him. D stiffened. Inuyasha paused in the middle of punching a man's lights out. The soldier panted, but D could tell he was smiling underneath his hood, satisfied that he had killed one.

However, Gemma didn't fall to the ground. For a moment, he just stood there, the terrible wound in his head bleeding and oozing. But then…something happened. The blood suddenly pulled itself back into his head. New brains and bones seemed to come out of the center of it and reconnect back in the old position. A layer of skin and muscle came down over it as well. Within an instant…Gemma's head was restored perfectly. He turned and glared darkly at the one who had shot him, but also smiled wickedly. Then, mercilessly, he stabbed the man through the head.

"Nice try." He darkly chuckled.

D had to genuinely suppress the instinct to gape for once in his long life. Miyu's eyes were bulging as she was overcome by genuine total shock. Inuyasha's jaw dropped. The others were similarly surprised, but even the "monsters" of the group were overwhelmed. D remembered suddenly that look Gemma had earlier… _I survive everything,_ he had said…

"Lupin, get down!"

Immediately, everyone's attention was diverted and looked to the source of the voice. It was female this time, and D recognized it as Kei's. Apparently, one of the remaining soldiers had recovered, and had opened fire on her and Lupin from their position. She extended one hand out and shoved on his shoulder, trying to get him out of the way. But the spread was too great. It wouldn't be enough. However, with her other hand, she extended her palm up at the man, and she winced and appeared to be focusing. The gunfire erupted a moment later, but as D and the other's watched, Kei's own special ability was revealed. The heavy bullets slowed down as if they were passing into thick gelatin as they came toward the duo. They came almost to a complete stop by the time they reached Kei's palm. Lupin, now aware and shocked, looked to her.

"Wow! That's some trick!" He remarked.

Kei, in reply, merely grit her teeth and sweat under the strain. "Just…shoot…him…" She managed to spit out.

Lupin blinked. "Oh yeah! Right!" Immediately, the rogue turned to the man, pulled up his gun, and fired a single shot again at the knee. Either the shield had to drop for the soldiers to fire or Kei had neutralized it in some way, but the bullet went through this time. His shot had been perfect on one of the breaks in the bulletproof fabric. A spurt of blood came out, and the soldier groaned and collapsed.

Silence reigned over the battlefield. In less than thirty seconds…maybe fifteen…it was all over. The enemy never stood a chance. Kei sighed and released, and the bullets clattered to the ground. D surveyed the area once, and then calmly sheathed his weapon. Gemma produced a red-stained rag and began to clean his own. Inuyasha continued to hold his last victim up by the shirt. Miyu gestured at Larve, and the being returned to her. Lupin stood up from where he was, blew on his gun barrel, and returned it. "Whew. Good thing for us I had my gun, eh?"

Everyone turned to him and glared for a moment. The rogue grinned in response. D tried not to roll his eyes and instead turned back to the nearest soldier he had felled. He quickly bent over, seized him by his own collar, and yanked him to his feet. The man was limp as he did so, already dead weight. Perhaps he wasn't as strong as he had indicated. D had been gentle. He derived no pleasure from killing, though he wouldn't hesitate if he had to or if he was provoked. At any rate, he left these men alive to get information from them. Now, he quickly pulled off the man's hood, and prepared to interrogate.

However, no sooner had he yanked off the man's hood than he saw something very unexpected. The man was already dead. Perhaps it would have been hard for a regular person to tell this at first, but not for D. He could smell death on him…and something else.

"Hey! What the hell…?" Inuyasha called out. D turned his head to him. Evidently, the dog-demon had picked up on it as well. He was shaking his own victim, and then pulled off the hood to reveal another dead head.

Miyu looked to him and raised an eyebrow. "Don't know your own strength? Or did you plan to kill them?"

"I wasn't trying to kill them." Inuyasha answered with a snap. "They stink… They smell like poison."

Miyu turned and looked to her own felled soldiers. She focused a moment, then frowned. "Yes…it's on mine too. There's no way that those small spells would have killed them."

D turned his soldier over, seized the back of the heavy fabric, and ripped it off. On doing so, he saw that there were tubes leading from the torso armor toward the mouthpiece of the helmet. It looked reminiscent of a gas mask, but from the looks of it there was no question that the gas had come from there.

"Whoever sent these men wanted to make sure that if they failed they wouldn't live to tell us anything." The hunter explained.

"And they know about us too." Kei spoke up. "Or at least me."

Miyu snorted. "Leave it to humans to be unable to keep anything secret. Inept pieces of flesh…"

Gemma finally replaced his katana. "So they could be expecting us. Assuming that this entire deal wasn't a setup."

Kei shook her head in response. "They wanted me. These people already had me. If they wanted to kill me they could have a long time before now. And I assure you, the Akira Project was real." However, after saying this, she suddenly turned her head to Gemma. "How did you do that back there?"

The others immediately followed suit. "Yes." Miyu asked. "Are you some sort of Shinma yourself?"

Gemma merely cracked a smile, and calmly walked back to the others. "It's an ancient technique I perfected. Based on my understanding of what I was told of the Akira Project, it is not entirely unusual. I hear that this Tetsuo figure was able to regenerate. I myself have perfected the ability to do so as well. I'm immortal."

Lupin blinked. "I thought even immortals could die by blowing off their heads."

Gemma shrugged. "I must be better than immortal then." He gestured to the scar around his neck with a grin. "I've been decapitated once."

An awkward silence followed that. None of the others present, D included, had ever encountered a being who could survive something like that. D was more wary about Gemma than ever now. One of the things that made vampires so vile was their longevity. Their immortality and inability to die gradually made them fell they were above all rules and morals of the world. Perhaps D's own constant encounters with beings that could make him very mortal led him to keep his own morals. How could you make a person follow your orders when you could do nothing to stop them? But before anything else could happen, the door to the limousine suddenly popped open. D and the others were distracted from Gemma and all looked to the opening.

Washu calmly stepped out and stretched her arms and legs. She took a look around the area. "Well, looks like you boys took care of things nicely around here."

Inuyasha snorted at her and crossed his arms. "No thanks to you."

Kei straightened up and began to walk away from the car. "Let's just get moving. We have to get to the airport while we still have time."

Lupin sighed and wiped his brow. "Yeah…especially considering the fact we'll have to probably fight our way through a dozen more ambushes on the way."

Washu merely confidently waved at the group. "Feh. Just leave that to the Great Chibi Washu. I told you I'd bring the cabbit around as soon as we were outside. Say hello to our new ride."

With that, the little girl turned to the right, faced the hills, cupped her hands around her mouth, and called out as loud as she could. "RYO-OHKI!"

The group immediately turned and looked over to the hill. D looked as well, waiting for something to show up. Whatever it was, it had better be fast. Daylight was in two hours in Budapest. Perhaps in three breakfast would be served for a basic early riser. Who knew how long or when this man would eat? What more, D realized that he wasn't exactly sure where to go from here. What hotel were they going to anyway? At any rate, he hoped a fast ride was coming, and waited for the sounds of some engines or motors. After a moment, however, something most unexpected came instead.

Hopping down the hill, tripping, and then tumbling the rest of the way, came a little brown furry creature. When it reached the bottom, landing on its rear end, it looked rather confused and dizzy, and only gradually righted itself, shaking its head. The creature was very odd looking, with yellow eyes, a small crest on its forehead, and looking to be a brown mixture of a rabbit and a cat.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Miyu asked.

"What is that, the result of a rabbit spirit and fox spirit?" Inuyasha asked.

Washu looked proud. "Ryo-ohki is the amazing result of successfully cross-breeding inorganic material with the fascinating matter-antimatter energy producing organism commonly classified as Mass. The result is friendly, huggable, furry, and overwhelmingly fast and powerful."

"I hope you also invented a shrink ray, because that's the only way we're all going to fit on that rat." Lupin griped.

In response, Ryo-ohki began to meow at Lupin angrily. But Washu was calm. "Ryo-ohki," She addressed the creature. "Would you kindly transform for these ladies and gentlemen that we might be on our way?"

Immediately, the cabbit forgot its anger, meowed approvingly to Washu…and then radically changed. Abruptly, a large, pointed metal shaft erupted out of where its head was, instantly extending out three meters in length. The furry body leapt slightly into the air, and then both ears of the creature suddenly erupted into a gigantic size on either side of its head, extending into giant gray metal flaps twenty meters in wingspan. More metal components began to burst out of the creature, and its fur and brown color vanished to reveal a gigantic, elaborate metal structure underneath. It continued to enlarge, and red lights began to come on at various points on the creature. The group began to look even more amazed than before, and their eyes slowly began to rise as the creature grew larger and larger in front of them, overextending the road and the spaces between the two hills, quickly raising overhead to be able to fit. After a few more moments, the transformation was complete. The group now found themselves looking upward, squinting in the light being emitted from beneath a large, hovering, life-like ship, feeling their hair and clothing being pushed away by the blasts of air coming from its huge engines.

Washu calmly turned around, smiling and facing the others. "Well, all aboard."


	4. Breakfast in the Duck Room

**Chapter Four**

_One Hour Later_

D looked about the ship he was on. It was intriguing, to say the least. He wasn't into any science fiction, but this ship transcended most stories he had seen in his time. There was no cockpit, no console, no captain's chair, and no method of steering the ship. Instead, there was merely a large open area in the front, large enough for multiple people to be in and walk about in, and a large window in front. Below him, the world flashed by at speeds thought impossible to mankind, yet he didn't sense the slightest movement. On taking off, he didn't even need to sit down. He didn't sense the slightest inertia. There was nothing but the sudden supersonic movement of Ryo-ohki. D would have almost believed that he wasn't really seeing the world move but was merely looking at a picture of it moving, like a movie.

Footsteps echoed behind him. He recognized them almost immediately. It was Gemma. A bit of tension went through the hunter, but he suppressed it. This man was more mysterious than any of the other members so far, and he aroused his curiosity. Gemma walked to his side, then halted and crossed his arms.

"Pretty nice ship, eh?"

D did not answer this. He merely continued to look out.

"From the looks of it, we're already over the Ukraine." Gemma mentioned. "We'll be in Hungary long before breakfast. Plenty of time to get to the Embassy Hotel."

That had ended up being the right hotel. It had taken Washu no time at all to hack into the system of the hotel listings in Budapest and find the VIP guests. She had run up a match with the locations, and determined that the Embassy was the best spot. Now, they were en route, and wondering if they were moving faster than the news of their attacks was. There was the problem that they might have warning now. However, D was also beginning to wonder how much this enemy group did know.

"I had a history in Japan." D finally mentioned.

Gemma turned and raised an eyebrow to him. "Well, you do speak. Maybe we can get friendly."

D did not change his emotional position in his voice. "I've had a few jobs in that part of the world. I didn't hear of your technique among any clans."

Gemma was the silent one now.

"I _did_ hear of it among a small group…a clan of only seven members. They had supernatural powers…and a story involving some stolen gold."

Gemma smiled a bit. "Now…do I make assumptions about you based on your father? Or ask you of your past?"

D hesitated a moment.

"…My apologies."

There was a moment of silence between the both of them. However, it did not last long. More footsteps were heard behind the two men as members walked into the room. D and Gemma both turned and looked to the entrance into the room. Chibi Washu was in the lead, with Lupin and Kei following closely behind. Miyu and Inuyasha were gone for the moment. When D had last seen Inuyasha, he was probing the walls with his sword. Kei had changed clothes at this point, D realized. She was now wearing a loose jacket with tank top, jeans, and boots.

Washu smiled. "Isn't she great? She has enough firepower to level any country on Earth, instant compensation on controls, and a full adjustable wardrobe, as Ms. Kei has already made use of. I could take her faster, but any faster and the drag would rip a wind tunnel through the landscape. You should see her in space though."

"What's the move, leader?" Gemma suddenly asked, turning to D. "They probably know we're coming now, no matter how fast this bucket moves."

The entire hull of the ship, revibirating, let out an angry meow at that. Lupin and Kei looked a bit stunned, but D was calm in response. "If he tries to take off, we can intercept in the Ryo-ohki. If not, we will have to go down and make a move. We can't risk him recognizing us though."

Lupin grinned at that. "Leave it to me. I'm great at this sort of thing. My old crew and I used to have a dozen routines to work on situations like these. I'll play the part of the old colonel, and Kei over here can be the Southern Belle hanging lovingly on my arm…"

Lupin was cut off as Kei smashed her elbow into his gut, causing him to "oof" and bend over slightly.

"We'll split up to move in on him." D responded. "Kei, Lupin, and I will move in on him and see what we can get out of him. Due to our secrecy I doubt we'd be the most recognized among the group. Gemma and Miyu will cover the entrance. Since Washu is best with this thing…"

"_Chibi_ Washu!" Washu angrily corrected.

"…And Inuyasha doesn't pass that well for human, they'll stay on board and check for them slipping out anywhere else."

Lupin forgot his pain and quickly went eager again, rubbing his hands in excitement. "Alright! Time for the old master to get to work. Although I usually don't wing it like this. I'd like it if I had something to go on with the man I'm talking to."

"Oh, don't worry about that." Washu immediately answered. "I can fix you up with a transmitter lickity-split. Since I got nothing better to do, I'll hack the hotel system, check the phone registry, and see if I can't get some information on what this Thorne guy's been doing. Then I'll just wire it on right over to you."

"Cool. So where's the transmitter?" Lupin responded.

Washu immediately held up a large sort of implantation gun holding a beeping orb on the end of it that seemed to be at least tennis-ball sized. "Now, if you would be so kind as to pull open your left eyelid…"

"I'll need a gun." Kei suddenly announced before Lupin could turn any whiter. "I'm unarmed."

Gemma raised an eyebrow at her. "Unarmed? You look like you've got a pretty unique weapon all to yourself right now."

Kei grimaced a bit and swallowed. "…It…hurts when I do it."

Washu lowered her gun and shrugged. "I could probably whip you up a special drug that could make it come a little easier for you-"

At the mention of the word "drug", D immediately smelled a strong odor of fear from Kei. It was the first time she had shown any strong emotion, but she showed it now. For a moment, a wave came over her, like she was suddenly a small, frightened child rather than the strong woman she seemed to be in all respects. Even when she recovered, she still seemed unnerved. "N-n-no. No. No drugs." She immediately responded, each time getting more certain and defiant. She calmed down a bit after that, and then spoke more regularly. "I mean…I've had some bad experiences…back with the Project."

"Fine then." D merely responded, considering the matter closed. "Let's get the others out here and tell them the mission."

"Also," Kei spoke up abruptly. "I don't speak English."

"Not a problem." Lupin answered with a grin. "Just leave everything to yours truly."

* * *

After thirty minutes they were there. The Ryo-ohki had slowed down to a rather slow speed as the group gathered in the cockpit. They were flying over Budapest now. The sun was up and glaring through the window with orange rays of light. The windows of buildings gleamed in the morning sunshine and industrial smoke rose into the air, blotting out sections of the sky. Washu had already told the ship where to go and it was en route. However, a laptop that appeared to be hovering in midair was in front of her, and she was looking it over.

"Looks like they've been expecting us." She commented. "I'm detecting ten gun emplacements around the city, four tanks, and enough communications to wire up Connecticut. They're waiting for signs of something."

"This ship will stick out like a sore thumb." Inuyasha warned.

Washu shook her head. "Not a problem for a genius like me. On low speed I can bend light around Ryo-ohki to make her invisible."

Gemma turned to Miyu and raised an eyebrow. The girl looked normally outside into the sun-filled sky. "…I thought vampires had to stay out of the daylight."

"_Undead _vampires do." Miyu corrected. "Living vampires can…tolerate it. But I can't transform. Many of my powers are greatly diminished. Larve will be my only defense, and he too is weakened."

Gemma began to reply to that.

"Don't worry." Miyu cut off. "I'm more than a match for any human as I am now."

"Alright." D announced as he noticed a building in the distance, one a bit newer and regal looking. The Ryo-ohki was approaching it fast. "There's the place. Set us down a bit ahead of it. Let's not ruin this."

* * *

The hotel was of the older style in the world. It was clearly new however, not more than five years old. It must have been made in the appearance of an older time then, no doubt to attract the tourists. The lights inside were yellow and dim to create a fireside appearance. The colors were dark brown and wood decorated much of the place. It reminded D of when the country was really old. Hungary wasn't too far from Romania. He was only about twenty years into his career when he hunted his first vampire here. Things had changed. Now, the internationalness of this place was emphasized. Many people, mostly tourists he assumed, ran about the front lobby speaking in a dozen different languages. There were even a few Japanese here. No Romanians, however, like D. Not that it mattered. He had forgotten his nationality a long time ago by this point.

Instead, as D and his two companions strolled through the front door he kept his eyes out for other things. Though the place seemed warm and friendly enough, and everyone seemed to be wearing suits, a few men in black suits attracted his attention. They were walking around the front lobby in predictable patterns, sweeping the area. A few were stationed at the door both within and beyond it, where Gemma and Miyu were setting up watch. The guards were not the issue. The only harm they could do was buy the officer enough time to escape. D had to make sure that didn't happen if worse came to worse.

"Head straight to the dining room." Lupin advised.

"We shouldn't check in?" D asked.

"Nah. Things work out best when you look like you know where you should be and know exactly what you're doing. Don't worry. We should be expected anyway, right? Leave it to me."

D did as he was told, and began to walk with Lupin right to the back of the lobby. Once there, they turned left and moved through the hallway. The windows were open here to let in the morning light. People were bustling about. None of the guards seemed to recognize the three of them. Perhaps they were expecting them to have no real plan and just burst in. D soon saw a large set of double doors made of thick wood. They were pried open with a maitre' d inside. There was a coat check as well. D and the group made for that at once. It was still march and cold in Hungary, and each of them had a coat with their disguises.

D reached the man and calmly handed a tan trench coat over. He had already lost his hat, and felt unusually naked in the gray suit with red tie on underneath. It was very unlike him. Over his hands he continued to wear two black gloves. He claimed this was for fashion's sake, but he was doing it merely to conceal his small friend. Kei handed over her own coat, a fox fur that looked mildly trampy. What she was wearing underneath looked much the same, a sleeveless, strapless blue dress that revealed her shoulders and stretched down only to the top of her knees. A pair of high heels was on her, and she had made her face up rather well. She was a pretty sight to behold, if not looking like some playgirl. But that was the idea. That was her part. And she did it well. She let out an airy Japanese giggle to the man and flushed with the false Asian modesty. Lupin's own brown overcoat was next, revealing his now swollen body that was barely contained inside a three-piece white suit looking fresh out of a Mark Twain museum. However, the true disguise for Lupin was underneath the suit…

The three walked in right afterward, Lupin now sporting a cane to hobble along in a false look of age. No sooner had they come in than three of the black suited men came up to them. Once of them glared right at Lupin, who appeared to be the leader.

"Sorry for the inconvenience." He spoke in Hungarian. "All diners this morning must be checked. We have a VIP dining in the Duck Room this morning." He immediately snapped his fingers at the other two, and they moved in. Quickly, they patted D, Kei, and Lupin down and were none to gentle about it. Their cold expressions showed that they were not interested in chit-chat or in doing this job. Their specialties were in something else.

"See here, ah say, see here, boy." Lupin immediately responded, holding his cane up threateningly. He spoke in a perfect imitation of Southern American, talking just like a fussy old man. That went perfectly with his appearance. He had put at least a hundred pounds on his small frame with a bodysuit. His face had age lines from a mask and his eyes were pried open to look European. His hair was white, a thin white beard was on his chin, and a thick pair of black horn-rimmed glasses was over his gaze. "Ah am a retired ahrmy colonahl and ah strongly ahbject ta' bein' treated lahke this, 'specially in front of two uh mah esteemed guests. Ah tell ya', there ain't no better Vee Eye Pee in these parts than Colonahl MacLeish. If'in ah hadn'ah ahlready checked out this mornin', by thunder, ah'd ah have you go check mah name so yah could come back an apologize right now fer this indecency."

"My apologies, Colonel." The man responded in plain English, but only after his crony had made sure Lupin had nothing on him, then turned and gave him an approving nod. "Just standard security measures. Enjoy your breakfast."

"Why thank you suh, ah think ah'll do jus' that without anymore interruptions." Lupin responded, waving his cane warningly at the man one last time. He then beckoned to D and forcibly took Kei's arm, much to her surprise and forced concealed anger. "Well, come along Henry. Let's us get us ah table."

* * *

"This is a waste of time." Miyu snarled.

Gemma shrugged. "Give your leader a bit more credit." He answered. "After all, aren't you and he blood kin?"

Miyu glared at Gemma darkly in response to that. She had turned into more civilian clothes now, dressed as a normal Japanese schoolgirl. It was her traditional disguise. Larve was waiting in one of the numerous shadows under the awning she now stood with Gemma, overlooking the front drive of the hotel. It was long, allowing many people to come to and fro as well as their cars. For that reason, Miyu and Gemma were rather inconspicuous in the passing crowds. Gemma, on his part, had only placed a light outer coat over his current clothing and cleaned up his blood using one of Washu's tools. Other than that he was the same, save for no sword.

After a moment, however, Miyu's anger vanished, and she smiled a bit instead. "You're an interesting one, no doubt." She finally announced, her tone much less harsh though still with a mystic quality about it. "I did not think they made humans such as you. I did not think they were capable of regeneration like that."

Gemma merely smiled and looked to her. "Mind over matter, that's all there is." He simply replied. "That Akira Project thing seemed to prove that rather well. Tell me," He suddenly changed voices, as if he was altering the subject. It turned out he was, but he spoke as if it was something bothering him for a while. "Do you really expect to find a Shinma here, or do you expect something else?"

Miyu's smile faded a bit, but she was not angry. She looked away from Gemma and shook her head. "No." She answered. "There is definitely a Shinma somewhere in here."

"Even though all the personnel should be human?"

"Yes."

"And that's the only reason you came?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Miyu had no answer for that unexpected question right away. But after a moment, the vampire sighed. "…It is because I have nothing else. Perhaps I desired a change of working alone. After all these years of hunting…I have nothing else."

A deep melancholy went into Miyu. A regret came over her, and her gaze went from powerful and sinister to reveal her inner troubled self. For a moment, she was exposed and let her human side come forth. For all the evil within her, she did still have some good and right within her. She inhaled deeply and looked at the ground longer. Then she looked up to the sky. It was growing cloudy on the horizon, and the sun was still rising, beginning to peak up over the buildings.

"I once enjoyed the sunrise." She spoke out loud. "I once enjoyed the rain. But something changes when you are immortal. Part of the beauty of this world…yes, even the beauty of the short, pained existence the mortals call life…is that it is something that is passing…that you cannot see forever. But I can. I shall see it again and again and again until I can no longer remember what it was like to see it for the first time or what sensations I felt when it still stimulated me. It will become a bland, purposeless nothing. But more…never will I be able to share my pain fully with another. Never will I meet one who will not eventually fade. Never will I look on anything alive or potent and not feel a hunger inside me. I will either kill or worse to all I meet. This is my fate. This is my curse."

A long, empty pause followed after that. The streets were quieter now. The footsteps of the people were softer. Everything seemed darker and colder. But it was not in the menacing way now that Miyu had caused earlier. Now, it was simply due to her sadness flooding over everything. A sorrow and misery that had been building for endless nights of loneliness. But at last, footsteps came that were louder. Gemma slowly walked forward, and came in behind Miyu. A moment later, the vampire princess felt a single warm hand lay on her shoulder.

"I will never age." Gemma told her, in an encouraging voice. "I will never die. I too will see things around me change and they will one day become nothingness to me, but I will endure. But you cannot kill me Miyu. Even if you quenched your thirst with my blood you could never drain me dry. I will always remain as unchanged and unchanging as you." He paused a moment after that.

"…And I, too, need a better satisfaction in my endless life than mere money can offer."

Miyu raised an eyebrow, and suddenly looked up, startled. She understood now.

* * *

"Damnit! Why are we just waiting here?"

"Oh, hush up doggie." Washu immediately countered, continuing to type on her laptop with one hand but raising her other to scratch Inuyasha behind one of his furry ears. Inuyasha's breath caught in his throat, he glared at Washu for a moment, then suddenly snapped back.

"Don't do that!" He shouted.

Washu continued to ignore him and instead began to speak into her headset. "Alright guys. Here's some info. Thorne made three phone calls to a private cellular line of a S. Valestro. He has some connections with former United States CIA operatives. Then there's some call from Japan, probably about the mess we caused last night. Also, there's a few calls to a Budapest local orphanage. I can't break it down anymore from there. Probably a dummy company. Recycled files indicate he came into town only last night on an unlicensed private jet from the international airport. There's been another landing of the same kind since then. I'm now diving into the conversations to see if I can't stir up something more juicy…"

Washu went back to typing, but now Inuyasha was intrigued. "What was all that stuff you were just talking about? Orphanage? Cellular? Airport?"

"I don't have time to instruct you in the finer points of Earth: 21st Century." Washu calmly replied, not looking up from her keyboard. "Now please sit still and be a good dog and I'll call you when I need you to smash something."

Inuyasha grit his teeth angrily.

* * *

"Got it."

"That's him. Head over there."

D focused his eyes on a table in the center of the room. It wasn't anything grand, just like all the rest of the tables. And though it had place settings for seven, only three were seated. Two of them were black-suits who didn't look like they had food on their minds. The one in between them, however, was their man. He was decorated like any normal US commander. He seemed to be taking it fairly easy. Though he had a hard enough military look about him, it seemed he had been away from the lines so long that his belly had grown rather large. A double chin protruded from around his neck and was obscured only partially by a thick gray beard and mustache. His nose was round like a tomato as he puffed great smoke clouds from a cigar. His body was either fat or muscular or both, and he seemed to be rather large in the chair. He was balding a bit but for the most part had all his gray hair. Behind him, four more black suits flanked him, looking around generally darkly at the whole situation. There were plenty of other people in the Duck Room eating breakfast, and a fair din was rising out of the whole situation. If not for the uniform and guards, the man would have blended in fine.

But as it was, Lupin hobbled his way on his cane right up to him. The guards immediately focused on him, and glared at him and his group coldly as he came nearer. "Why, ah do believe ah'm havin' the pleasure of meetin' Commandah Thorne fer the very first time." He spoke as he came nearer. He extended one of his hands out warmly. "How ya' doin', sonny?"

The black suits stiffened at the man as he approached. As for Thorne, he stopped smoking for a moment. He pulled his cigar out of his mouth and set it on an ashtray near his mostly eaten food. "Do I know you?" He addressed in an unamazed voice.

"Not personahly, suh, not personahly." Lupin answered, already pulling back a chair and easing himself into it. The black-suits might have protested, but he didn't give them a chance. "But ah've been watchin' ya' fer some time now. And apparently somebodah's been watchin' me. Ah've been eager fer some time ta' get mah hands wet in on this House business."

Thorne's eyes bulged at the mention of that name, so freely and loudly pronounced in an American Southern accent. The other men likewise grew unsteady. But Lupin just droned on.

"Now good ol' Valestro finahly drops me ah line and gives me my lil' share in this opahration. Ah'm with the Budapest orphanage, suh, makin' sure we handle whatevah business we got there nice an' easy."

Thorne looked around nervously for a moment, his brow beginning to sweat. Suddenly he leaned forward sharply. "Will you shut up about that, you idiot!" He spat in a harsh whisper. "You want to tip off whatever damn fool federal agent is listening?"

"Aw, don't you worry yerself none, boy." Lupin answered, waving off Thorne's concerns but talking a bit quieter. "That incompetent bunch of dirt-diggin' Europeans ain't got nobody pinned on us yet. But I'll tell ya' what they _do_ got. But first, lean back son, yer gonna throw out yer back like that."

Thorne continued to hold forward for a moment, still angry. But at last, however, he leaned back and returned to his seat. His tense face remained, but he stayed fairly normal. "So…Silvestro recruited you."

"Why, yes'un he did, suh."

"And your name?"

"Why, Colonahl William MacLeish."

"And your business with us?"

"Got some info, plus ah'm handlin' the orphanage business."

"…I see." Thorne answered after a moment. He paused for a few seconds, looking Lupin over, probing him for weaknesses. He gave none. However, after a moment, Thorne smiled. "Then you won't have any problem if I contact Silvestro to have this validated, will you?"

D tensed up immediately. He was still standing behind Lupin at this point, but now he sensed the danger. He wanted to hit himself for not thinking about this possibility before they came in. He shouldn't have trusted this to Lupin. At any rate, the rogue now began to sweat and panic. If he didn't show it, D could smell it. Fear went over him and nervousness.

"W-why…not…not at all, suh. Ah'm legit as apple pie."

After hearing that, Thorne turned his head toward one of the nearby black-suits. The man immediately reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a cell phone. He dialed a number, and then held the receiver to his head to await an answer…

* * *

Washu grinned as her ship registered the call. "Time for the ol' switcheroo."

"The what?" Inuyasha asked.

Washu didn't answer. Instead, she quickly typed a few keys on his computer, quickly tracing the call signal and transmitting it to a new location, right there at the Ryo-ohki. While that was going on, she quickly stopped listening to the phone message and in a flash typed up a program to take Silvestro's voice from the signals and create a synthesis on her own system network. Lastly, she typed a few more keys, and the ringing sound began to transmit out from her own computer. She waited for a few moments, allowing the phone to ring more, but after enough rings she decided it was enough, and pressed a send button. Immediately, she spoke into the receiver, knowing full well the man on the line was only hearing Silvestro's voice.

"You've reached my phone. I'm on business currently. However, I want anyone calling this number to recognize a new change effective immediately. Colonel William MacLeish is joining the House. He has important information about the incident that happened to our men last night in Japan. If there are any other concerns, leave a message."

With that, Washu smugly pressed a button that simulated a phone beep perfectly. She soon heard the other end hang up, and then hung up her own end with a smile.

"Man, I'm a genius!"

* * *

The black suit slowly removed the phone from his ear, closed it, and then turned to Thorne. He gave him a simple nod. Thorne nodded back. D, viewing this, was more than a little puzzled. Could they have been lucky enough to actually impersonate a man of the same name on this particular day? Or was Washu doing something? He soon got his answer, as he heard a voice in his ear bragging about the whole thing. At any rate, Lupin wasn't thrown off long. He soon was back in the act, and was the calm Southerner all over again.

Thorne smiled more genuinely at Lupin. "My apologies, Colonel." He extended his hand out now to him. "Welcome aboard."

"Thank yah very much, suh." Lupin responded, taking his hand and shaking it, and then withdrawing and returning to his chair. "Howevah, I ain't got time fer a social call tahday. We've got a problem on our hands."

Thorne looked up and met gazes with D. Soon after, he turned away from the cold glare and looked to Kei instead. Lupin noticed this, and then spoke up. "Mind if my acquaintances have ah seat?"

"Not at all." Thorne answered, gesturing to the two empty chairs. Both of them readily took them and sat down. D was cold and regular, but Kei was continuing her flirtaceous act, giving them smiles and winks the whole time. Thorne seemed a bit pleased by this. "Who are they?"

Lupin gestured to D. "Why, this is mah esteemed associate and bodyguard. Hails from Row-main-eeyah. Dumb as ahn ox, silent as ah mute, but he shore comes in handy in ah scrape. He don't give out his name and, tah tell ya' the truth," He leaned forward a bit, and put his hand to his mouth as if saying something private. "Ah can't pronounce it anyhoo."

Thorne smiled a bit more at this, and Lupin let out a large southern chuckle as he leaned back into his chair. After a moment, however, Thorne's wandering eyes went over to Kei. "And she is?"

"The best $2,000 ahn hour ever spent." Lupin proudly answered. It was a good thing Kei couldn't understand what was being said. "She's as sweet as sugah ahn nice ahn quiet, jus' how I like 'em. Fact that she can't say nuthin' English sure helps though, eh?"

To accentuate this, Lupin abruptly slapped Kei on the ass. D had never seen a woman work so hard in such a brief period to break a smile and force a cheery, excited laugh. In her eyes, however, D saw her glaring daggers at Lupin. Unknown to him, shortly after that, Kei used her own power to give Lupin a numbing jolt up the leg. He just assumed that Lupin abruptly kicked it to pantomime some perverted action. He managed to laugh enough during it to make it sound that way. But this time, Thorne joined in laughing a bit as well. The ice was melting. That was good. Soon, however, Lupin stopped laughing, and grew serious.

"But seriously, like ah said, this ain't no social call." He spoke warning. "These guys they got out fer us, they're different. They got all sorts of special trainin', and some of the damn things might be mahnsters from what I hear. They're on their way here right this minute."

"Yes, I know." Thorne answered calmly, picking up his cigar and taking another puff on it. "We're ready for them. At any rate, I'll be leaving in two hours. Even the fastest plane on Earth wouldn't arrive for another hour after that."

"Oh, I don't know about that, suh." Lupin replied in a warning voice. "They got some new kinda plane wit' them. I ain't even sure it's a real plane. They could be here any minute at what we clocked them at. We had better wrap this breakfast up real quick and move outta here."

Thorne raised an eyebrow to this. "You really think so?" He questioned. "One of that group they've sent out is the Kei we're looking for. The Colonel was very clear that he wanted us to get her. And you know what happened to the last one who admitted a failure to the Colonel."

D sensed Kei react to this name, sensing a familiarity in it. It was a shock he had sensed before, coming from many people who had seen those they thought dead now turned into vampires. It meant something, but he dared not say it now.

"We can worry 'bout some Japanese dame later." Lupin haughtily answered. "These guys mean trouble. I don't wanna be around when they get ta' work, and I don't think you wanna be neither, suh. They're comin' for Job 26."

* * *

"That's perfect." Washu said into her headset, giving Lupin the codeword for the Akira Project just in time. Even as she said that to him and continued to listen in on their conversation, she was continuing to work furiously at the computer, sorting out the dialogue from last night in the form of the random cellular signals it had become. She was struggling to piece it back together from an outer-space beacon that was only now picking up the message, and then broadcast it on her screen in a written format. As feared, the dialogue last night said everything in code regarding places or projects, and didn't seem to say anything about the missing materials. But she could find other information.

Inuyasha continued to angrily pace in the background, getting more irritable that he wasn't doing anything. But Washu ignored him for now, continuing to work at the keyboard.

_"What about your own mission, colonel?"_ The voice of Thorne suddenly spoke up in her headset. _"What about the matter of the Budapest orphanage?"_

_"Well…"_

Washu quickly entered in the dialogue regarding the orphanage into her computer, and scanned through what words were deciphered to reach the point of the discussion where they talked about the orphanage. What were they doing there anyway? Was it a barracks? A center of command?

_"Ah think ah can handle it on mah own…"_

Washu finally reached it. Quickly she began to scan over the dialogue. _Let's see…orphanage…date…what's coming… Ah, seventy new subjects…some potentiates… What? Paid in cash… Common freight boat? Conditioning starts in one week?_

Washu suddenly realized it, watching the dialogue. Abruptly, she stopped her typing. Her child-like eyes widened. Her jaw slackened. She stared at the screen in shocked horror. "What the…?" She managed to mumble.

Inuyasha twitched a furry ear to that and then turned to her. "What's the matter?"

"Children." Washu answered. "They're abducting children…and experimenting on them."

* * *

Lupin stiffened a bit as he heard this news through the headset. Kei likewise stiffened a little, but she showed less. D showed nothing. Figured. He didn't know who these people were, but whether you were vampire or human it seemed that when you had something sinister in mind you always preyed on the weak and helpless. In this case it was children no one would miss if they were taken away.

"Uh…yeah, the children will be on their way directly, be shore of that." Lupin finally finished, putting emphasis back into himself again and becoming normal once more. "It's all taken care of. But right now, ah'd like to stick like glue ta' ya', and have us both git ourselves outta Hungary along with Job 26."

Thorne raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's already in port at Sicily. That's a bit far…"

D could sense the exhaltation within Lupin as he heard that crucial bit of information being given out. However, D was not so confident. That man seemed to have given that information out pretty willing at last. There was something wrong… But Lupin didn't care. "Terrific." He immediately spoke up. "We're gonna be on that ship." He gestured to D. "Mah boy here can provide ah bit extra security. Let's git on that plane right now and git over there." He began to push away from the table. "And on the way, yah can tell me ah bit more 'bout that Colonel we're workin' for. Silvestro didn't say nuthin' 'bout him. I dun thought I was workin' fer him." He accompanied this with a small laugh.

Thorne smiled and chuckled a bit too. "Well, I'm afraid I can't say anything more about the Colonel, because now I have to kill the three of you."

With that, at once, all of the black suits in the room reached into their suitcoats, pulled out handguns, and aimed it at the three of the people in the center of the room, including the five in front of them. As expected, the people in the center screamed and began to go hysterical. But immediately, the black suits screamed at them to be quiet in the native language, and the doors out of the place were slammed shut and blockaded by black suits. D tensed up. He knew it was too easy. But Lupin continued his act. Looking huffy, he raised his cane impatiently.

"Why, ah am outraged! Ah say, ah am outraged!"

"Cut the southern bull." Thorne snapped. "I hate that hick talk and you've been driving me nuts with it. Job 26 isn't anywhere near Sicily. It's headed through the Panama Canal at noon Hungarian time. You're off by a hemisphere, 'MacLeish', or whoever you are. By the way, I wasn't calling Silvestro. You see, we know a little bit about bugging and hacking technology. A man in the CIA last month even figured out a way to transfer cellular signals to a new source. Since then, we have a new procedure. I was calling some random number. When he nodded to me, it was telling me that you three were part of this little group coming after us. I was only keeping you here to see what I could get from you, like where the other four are.

"Now, if any of you want to live for more than thirty seconds, I suggest you tell us right now who sent you and if this woman," Here, he gestured to Kei. "Is the medium."


	5. Highway to Hell

**Chapter Five**

Despite how quiet the room had become, there was still some snivelling and quivering among the guests. And because of that, no one noticed the quiet old, croaking voice barely audible from D's left hand.

"Well, another fine mess you've gotten us into, D."

"…Just get ready to inhale when I uncover you." D answered in the same near-ventriloquist response.

"Heh. Can't get out of anything without me, can you?"

"I won't ask again." Thorne warned darkly, hearing none of this.

D wasn't paying attention. Instead, under the table, he reached over to a small ring he was wearing on one of his hands. It was a device that he had managed to obtain from Washu before he had left the Ryo-ohki. He slowly put his hand on top of it and prepared to twist a strange curved jewel on top. As he did, he lowered his other hand, and it seemed to suddenly vanish into a pocket within reality, much as Washu had emerged from earlier. Only now, as he lowered his hand into it, he grasped the handle of his nodachi.

_Here we go._

At once, D twisted the jewel. As he did, and rings of light began to spread out from his hand and around his body, he yanked his long blade out of the pocket in reality and brought it up from beneath the table. The rings continued to spread as he suddenly shot up from his chair, bringing his sword up as well and cleaving the entire table and all on it in half. Thorne, shocked at the sudden movement, spilled backwards in his chair and landed on his back behind the five guards before him. They quickly filled in the gap and stared, and saw the two halves of the table fall separately on either side.

As they settled, the rings finished moving around D. Now, he was back in his black garb and armor, and held his long blade down at one side. Kei and Lupin were behind the blade as it was lowered. Kei, on her part, had twisted her own ring to reveal her own new clothes, much more covering, and had pulled out her gun. Lupin yanked off a prosthetic mask to reveal his face, had pulled out his gun, and popped something in his chest to make it deflate.

The suits didn't waste any time. The five raised their handguns as one to D and all began to fire repeatedly.

D, in response, merely brought his hand around, quickly yanked off a black glove, and then stuck his open palm in front of him. Even as they were shooting, the looks on the men's faces turned to horror as they saw a terrible, empty eyed, shrunken face protrude from D's hand. What more, the thing opened its mouth and inhaled a powerful blast of air, so strong that it whipped up and cast about all the material in the area from the destroyed table. As for the bullets, it inhaled each one of them into the black void that seemed to be its oral cavity. All five continued to shoot until they were out of ammunition, and all five clicked several times afterward, still gazing in terror. Only then did the thing close its mouth. Then, after a moment, it spat up, and every last bullet fired was thrown up on the ground in a pile of metal balls.

"Not very tasty." The hand _spoke_, in an old cranky voice.

The men did not have the chance to close their gaping mouths before D swung around his nodachi and cleaved off the tops of all their weapons, letting them all fall to the ground in halves. Thorne didn't waste another second, but immediately got up and began to run for the nearest exit. Kei quickly rose as well, and pointed her gun at his back. Yet she was soon engulfed again as D swept part of her coat around her and practically threw her to the ground along with himself, for at that moment all of the black suits in the room began to fire at once at them. Not having time to look out for Thorne, the two immediately dove for one of the halves of table. Lupin himself went for the other half, attempting to return fire as he did so.

The people in the room really began to panic now, especially since the crazy sight they had just seen and the fact that the black suits didn't care who was in the way as they shot. Kei, now at relative safety, disengaged herself from D and drew up behind the table. She too began to return fire along with Lupin. She looked over to D as she did so.

"Thanks." She admitted in Japanese. "What was that thing in your hand?"

"Not now." He coldly answered, replacing the glove over it. "We have to deal with these people and get after Thorne."

"How?" Lupin asked.

"Just keep them pinned down."

With that, D suddenly rolled out from behind his table and shot to his feet. Then, he took off for the nearest guard. The other suits immediately turned to shoot at him, and two of them got pegged as a result of letting their guard down by Lupin and Kei. As for D's target, he turned and fired at him as well. But as he did it, D, now running, suddenly squatted and went into a jump, soaring high and fast into the air. The man's bullets hit nothing but air, and as he looked up, he was just in time to see D diving down on him. The hunter sliced his gun in half as he descended, then quickly smashed the man in the face to send him falling.

Not wasting a moment, D turned to the next guard on his left. He immediately ran after him. The suits had been immobilized for a moment as they saw D's latest inhuman act, but this one recovered soon as well. He too tried to fire at D, expecting him to make another jump. But D did something different this time. In a gravity defying fashion, the man leapt onto the wall on his right and seemed to run almost perpendicular to it for a moment before leaping off when he reached the latest gunman. As he leapt off it, he struck out his leg to knock the man's gun out of his hands. He landed on his feet, then sharply kicked with his other leg to send the man flying, into another black suit down the line.

D heard a gunshot behind him at that time, far on the other side of the room. Immediately, he twisted around, heard the movements of air and the direction of fire, made a calculation, and swung his weapon down. A bullet aimed for his head was cleaved neatly in half, sending a shower of sparks off in front of his head. The latest gunman was shocked, and D took the moment to reach over to the nearest table. A shocked and terrified family was sitting there, so they didn't mind when D took the nearest plate, shook the food off of it, and then raised it to himself. Like a shuriken, the hunter swung the plate straight for the man's head. It sailed like a missile perfectly, and shattered right on the man's brow. He instantly went down.

Wasting not a second, D turned and saw another man with his gun aimed at him. Quickly, the hunter spun forward, swinging out his nodachi as he did so. The blade connected with the gun and immediately cleaved it in half, and quickly was followed up with D's fist into the man's face. Rather than stop there, the hunter seized him, flipped him over, and then threw him clear across the entire room. This time, he was flinging him at another man about to shoot at him. The flung one collided with the other, and both smashed into the wall so hard the plaster cracked.

D turned his own body around, and then charged for the other side of the room. Two other men immediately turned their guns on him and prepared to shoot. However, D had something else in mind. He quickly leapt up on top of a table as he charged forward, causing the guests to scream and food to fly everywhere. But D didn't care. Instead, he ran for the end of it, and then leapt off the end. Immediately, his superhuman strength propelled him into the air, and sent him sailing high overhead.

Again, bullets danced around D as he flipped in mid-air, turning about in a great somersault. He cleared the entire Duck Room within moments, the two suits continuously trying to shoot him as he did so. At last, he did come to a stop, right in between both men. Out of bullets, they quickly dumped their old clips and reloaded. D didn't attack. He calmly stood there, waiting for them to do something. They finally reloaded, then both raised their guns and aimed right for him.

D simply stepped backward, then watched both shoot each other.

The hunter paused a moment, looking around to see if the job was done. The room had gone silent now, and now the dark suits were shot or knocked out. The guests were still cringing under their tables or making for the exits. The battle seemed over. However, at that moment, D heard a clicking again. He wheeled around, and quickly saw that one guard had been playing possum. Now he was up, and aiming for D again.

But at that moment, a ripping sound suddenly shot through the room. It quickly grew into what sounded like thunder. D turned, and saw that now some glowing spike of force was ripping through the floor, not only casting aside tables but also tearing up dishes and tablecloths as it rushed forward. The man turned and gaped at this for a moment, before the rushing force struck him. It was like a massive blow had attacked him, and immediately his entire body was ripped off its feet and smashed into the wall behind it, so hard that he tore through the plaster, insulation, and boards and imbedded himself in a large crater in it. His legs alone dangled out as he was thrown inside, but they quickly faltered and went limp as well. He was out if not dead.

D turned his head to the source, a bit interested. What he soon saw was Kei. She was aiming a hand at the fallen man, her face covered with sweat and struggling to brace herself. She had done it, revealing another one of her psionic powers.

Lupin slowly raised his head from the table and looked around, marveling at all the destruction for a moment. However, he too soon focused on Kei. His eyebrows raised, and then he developed a devilish smile. "Say Kei, what else can you do with those powers of yours?" He asked slyly.

Kei turned and frowned at him. She focused on his face a moment, but then Lupin's head suddenly went flying back hard, as if he was slapped by an invisible force. Sure enough, when he turned back with an astonished look, a pink area in the shape of a hand began to form on his cheek.

_"That."_ Kei coldly answered.

"Enough talking." D responded, returning his sword to his side, and already moving. "We have to catch Thorne."

* * *

Genma perked up, and turned his head to the doorway. At the same time, Miyu raised her own head and looked out to the road. Her fine hearing already picked up the sound of tires. A car was coming in a hurry. Both of them knew that could mean only one thing. The others had failed. Thorne was coming right for them. They both turned to the door at once, and prepared themselves.

The doors finally flung open, just as a limousine turned the corner up the block and began to rush straight for the entrance. Four dark suits were there, and right behind them was Thorne. He looked focused on getting out of there, seeming to think that only the three behind would be there and try to stop him. The moment he emerged, however, Miyu quickly moved to intercept. She gathered what power she did have in the daylight to herself, and quickly pushed through the four people in front of Thorne as they came out, using her small size to get between them. They turned and noticed the civilian coming forth, but by the time they recognized it Miyu was already in front of Thorne, and had halted him where he stood. He froze and looked down to her.

"Leaving so soon, Mr. Thorne?" She addressed in English. "I'd like to have a word with you fir-"

Miyu froze and suddenly gagged as Throne responded to her by calmly dipping into his pocket, drawing out a small can of what looked like mace, and then spraying it directly into the vampire's throat. Miyu realized too late that Thorne's organization had been expecting a vampire. The spray was a high-potency garlic derivative, the chemical contained in which disrupted the weak plasma mutation within vampires. In short, Miyu's lungs suddenly began to burn within her chest. She clutched her throat and began to stagger back, but before she could do too much, one of the black suits pulled out a small metal rod, pressed a button on it, and immediately had it pop out into a sharp stake. With that, he quickly ran Miyu through from behind, shoving the stake through her heart and making it explode from the other side of her chest, soaked with blood. She stiffened once, and then collapsed to the ground, limp and pale. Right after, Thorne stepped over her and continued to leave with the others.

Genma quickly stepped in the way, beginning to pull out his sword. "Gotta get through me first, ass-"

But soon, Genma was cut off as well, for as he turned to face them, one of the footmen abruptly pulled aside his uniform, revealing a large, high-powered shotgun. He quickly yanked it up and aimed it right at Genma's back. Thorne and the dark suits merely closed their eyes as the trigger fired, and moments later fragments of bone, muscle, and lots of blood splattered all over them. When they opened their eyes again, Genma, now a gaping hole where his heart and lungs used to be, fell to the ground next. Thorne scowled and began to pull out a handkerchief to wipe Genma's blood off him as he continued to walk forward. Moments later, the limo arrived, and quickly screeched to a halt right in front of the hotel. The footman/guard opened the door, and immediately Thorne went in, followed by each of the four dark suits and finally the footman himself. After doing so, the door was shut, and the limo accelerated to speed away.

Just as it was leaving, D and the others burst out through the front door. His dark eyes immediately focused on the fleeing limo. But Lupin and Kei looked down and immediately saw the grisly sight below. Genma's chest was slowly growing new pieces of bone and muscle, but Miyu was motionless on the stake that impaled her. They stared in stunned silence.

"…Guess we're down to six now…" Lupin darkly uttered.

D, at that, finally turned away from the car and looked down to Miyu. He began to approach her and bent down to her side. "Hardly." He stated. He hesitated a moment, thinking that he never thought he'd be sparing a vampire. A strong impulse in him told him to finish Miyu off while she was helpless. But instead, he reached down, seized the stake, and yanked it out from her body. The vampress stayed still for a moment, but then suddenly spasmed, and opened her eyes. She quickly sat up and turned to D, seeing him gripping the bloody stake. Her eyes narrowed and she frowned.

"…Don't expect a thank you."

"I never do." D simply answered, and then rose to his feet.

Lupin blinked in amazement. "I thought stakes through the heart killed vam-"

"It only puts them in suspended animation." D quickly answered. "You have to give them an injury they can't regenerate from to kill them. But that's not important. The rest of you, make yourselves scarce. I'm stopping that limo."

Kei turned to him in surprise. "How are you…?"

But D was already gone. He tore out from under the awning, turned the corner, and quickly rushed down alongside the front of the hotel, vanishing from sight. As he did, Miyu rose to her feet, and Genma gave an "urk" as he rose up back to his own feet as well. His clothing was ruined, but he was whole. He looked around, and after surveying the situation was moments from asking about what had happened. But before he could, a monstrous sputter was heard from where D had run. The four remaining members turned and looked to the sight.

D shot by on his motorcycle, bent low to it and hard just as in olden days when he rode horses, and thundered after the limousine as fast as he could.

* * *

"Now when you see this guy, rip his face off. Understand? There's a Milk Bone in it for you."

"Hey! I don't take or-WAH!"

Inuyasha gave a yell as the Ryo-Ohki suddenly took a hard turn. Unaccustomed to the speed and vehicle, the dog demon was nearly thrown to the ground, and soon wobbled across the deck struggling to keep himself level. Apparently, the gravity defusing effect had been turned off from earlier. In front of him, the world was spinning in the window again. This time, however, Washu was at the helm, and was directing the ship. She was hovering close to the ground, and looking over the street. In particular, she was tailing a black limousine as it wove its way through the roads. She was also slowly bringing it down to the ground.

Inuyasha snarled and got to his feet. "Why don't we just blow it up, anyway? Or can't you catch up to it in this thing?"

"Ryo-Ohki can only maintain the ability to bend light going at a certain speed. Otherwise the changing color schemes, to say nothing of the energy required, become too great." Washu answered in her normal "didn't you know that?" voice. "Besides, she's much too powerful. She could blow up half the city. And I don't want to attract too much attention to her or me. Just jump out and chase this car like a good dog and then bite this guy's jugular or gnaw on his leg or urinate on his boots or hump him or whatever you do."

Inuyasha couldn't help but cross his arms, turn, and give a frown to Washu. "What's up with you, all of the sudden? Why do you want him dead so bad?"

"Fido, less talkie, more chasie." Washu responded. Then, to Inuyasha's surprise/chagrin, she abruptly pressed a button on the console, and the ground beneath Inuyasha dematerialized, dropping the dog demon out about four stories above a speeding roadway beneath.

* * *

D kept his focus on the limousine. It tried to lose him, of course. That was to be expected. But he had chased vampires in similar games before. And, typically, one who wouldn't die from something as simple as a car crash could be far more reckless on the road. Nevertheless, a cold wind pierced his eyes, and he had to struggle to stay focused through them tearing up. There was also a slight drag from his black coat flapping up behind him. But overall, his smaller motorcycle was more than a match in speed for an overly-long car. He soon made up the gap in traffic, and matched perfectly all the twists and turns as both vehicles passed cars.

A screeching sound suddenly struck the dhampire's ears. He quickly turned his head to the right and left, and saw that he had company. Two black sedans were moving in front of him, moving into the lanes on either side. They had totally disregarded traffic or safety rules as they sped in on either side, and their sameness of color indicated who they were. But that wasn't all. D cast a look to his rear view mirror, and saw that a third one was coming in behind him. He gave that one only a look for a second, before turning his head up and watching the other two. From the side windows, two men with two large automatic weapons suddenly came out of the side, got him in their sights, and opened fire.

The dhampire frowned and quickly bucked his cycle to one side, shifting into the right lane. The bullets whizzed by his left side and struck the ground where he was, before moving sloppily over to the right. Luckily, these men seemed not to realize how hard it was to aim on a moving target when in a moving vehicle. He quickly eased up on the speed ever so slightly to snap back, again avoiding the bullets that had managed to chase after him. That done, he quickly shifted the Harley Davidson into the emergency lane, and then gunned the engines once again. The gunfire was interrupted, and when the men were able to fire again it was already too late. D used a bystander's vehicle as a shield to avoid shots for the moment, and used the interim to blast forward even farther than before, putting one of the cars in between him and the other.

Of course, he wasn't completely clear. Now riding parallel to one car, the sidearm had an easy shot at him. He quickly leveled his gun at him to take the next few rounds. Quickly, D removed a hand from his bike, twisted it to expose his hand, and then turned and pointed it at the oncoming shots. Just as before, all of the bullets were inhaled into the opening formed by the face in D's appendage. He held for a moment, pausing only for a second to swerve back into the emergency lane and avoid a car that came between them, but then went back and quickly began to close in. Eventually, the man exhausted his clip, and had to reload. Taking that advantage, D quickly concealed his hand, then drew out his nodachi to move in and attack.

However, the hunter realized that he had a new problem. The car that had previously been blocked was now moving back behind him, and the one formerly behind him used his slowing down as an opportunity to catch up, and was now pulling along his side. D looked to either side, and saw that the one coming in on his right had a fresh clip and was moving to smash him in between the two vehicles. Grunting in irritation, the hunter quickly put on the brakes and dropped back between the two of them. However, he couldn't go far, because the third car was pulling up right behind him. What more, the one that had moved in to crush him recovered before colliding with its partner. In a flash of bullets and glass, someone shot out the rear window in that car, and moments later the man with the gun poked out and took aim at the hunter. The dhampire risked a look behind him, and saw that the same thing was happening with the windshield on the other car. It too was blasted out, and the man came up to shoot out through it at D. The man held for a moment, but then quickly swerved to the left as both opened fire. To their frustration, they only hit the pavement again. Immediately, the car in the rear swerved and went after the hunter, continuing to shoot along the way. The other two cars moved apart to plan a new strategy; protecting the limo.

D swerved to the right and the left, using another car for cover whenever possible, as the man continued to shoot at him. To his disappointment, they seemed to no longer care about civilians, and were freely shooting them as well. One vehicle D went behind was riddled with bullets. Moments later, it spun wildly out of control and braked, shooting perpendicular into a lane. The black sedan behind D managed to avoid it, but another car soon went sailing into the air from crashing into it, as D saw when looking behind him. Then he saw something else...

Bounding along the roadway at incredible speed, tearing apart the pavement with each leap, was Inuyasha. The dog demon shot twenty feet into the air with each pounce, and lunged forward after the enemy. Regretably, more accidents were caused as people desperately swerved out of the way from his approach, and the pieces of pavement he flung up behind him smashed into several griddles. Overall, however, he was moving forward.

The enemy sedan seemed to realize this. They quickly forgot about D, and turned to their new pursuer. They soon had the back window shot out from their own vehicle, and quickly brought the gun around to the back. By that time, Inuyasha had nearly caught up with them. They opened fire, hoping to cut him off before he could get any closer. But at that moment, the dog demon crouched down and leapt up higher than before. He sailed a full forty feet into the air at this point, easily shooting above the gunfire of his opponents, went over their roof, and then came to touch down right on the hood of their car. Immediately, the force of his impact smashed the entire front of the sedan flat. The engine was crushed, the axle was snapped, and the wheels flailed out from either side. The force of the impact mixed with the velocity of the chase threw the car down to the road for a moment, but then the rear end, not stopped by the immovable object of Inuyasha's feet, flew back up, scattering debris and chrome everywhere. As Inuyasha leapt off again, the car flew to pieces and tumbled down the road in somersaults, obviously taken out of commission.

D turned his attention ahead of him again. Both drivers were reloaded now. They had seemed to be stunned by Inuyasha's stunt for a moment, but now they both were looking to D. What more, two gunners were now coming into play in either car, and both were raising their weapons to aim at the dhampire. The hunter looked at them a moment, calculating and seeing what they were planning. But then, after waiting for just the right moment, he gunned the engine forward just as they opened fire. Sure enough, both of them followed him with their gunfire, continuing to tail him forward more and more…right up to the moment that he pulled his motorcycle right between the two of them. From there, the hunter merely waited as metal shards, glass, and blood flew up from either sedan as two gunners shot each other. The bullets quickly stopped after that. Both cars froze for a moment, stuck with having the motorcyclist between them.

Then, at last, the two remaining gunners reacted. Both doors flung open, and both men shot out with their barretas. Quickly, D pulled out his sword, swung it under his arm, and stabbed one in the stomach as he came forth. The other, he reached out with his free hand, seized the gun arm of the man, yanked him out, threw him over his motorcycle, and then cast him into the line of traffic.

That done, D worked quickly. He looked behind himself, and saw the Inuyasha was catching up. The dog demon again sailed through the sky, and this time landed right on the car to D's right. But rather than smash it, Inuyasha simply ripped off the top of the car, reached down, seized the driver, and then leapt off again. Right after doing so, D saw his moment. He slashed out his nodachi, and quickly sliced into the left front tire of the right car. That done, he quickly dropped back, and watched the car's front slam to the ground, grind and produce sparks and flame, and then waver to the left to smash its side right into the left car. That sedan tried to move, but it was too late. The force of this new car pushed it more and more to the side, and soon ran it off the road into the concrete median. The second sedan had its wheels grinded into the stone, its tires exploded, and in a mass of confusion and cars rushing in to fender bender it from behind, the cars ground to a halt. As for the driver, Inuyasha simply flung him down through the roof of another car and into some stranger's back seat, who quickly spun nearly out of control and wavered into the emergency lane.

The hunter looked up ahead and refocused on the limousine.

"Not too shabby…" His left hand threw in.

* * *

"Bloody persistent."

"Use the big gun."

"We can't guarantee zero fatalities if we do that."

"I stopped caring about fatalities seven minutes ago when our cover was blown. Do it."

* * *

D lowered his blade closer to the ground as he closed in on the limo. Inuyasha was at his side, continuing to bound and leap down the road. D was certain the dog demon could flatten the car easily, but D would rather just get one hit in on a tire at least. Then he could knock out the rest. After all, he wasn't wanting to kill Thorne. He was still their only link to House. That was, assuming that there wasn't some clue in the instructions he received…

However, as D was thinking this, the back window out of the limo popped out. The windshield fell to the road and shattered, and D quickly swerved out of the way to avoid running over it. This didn't really matter. So they were going to shoot again. Nothing too bad, now that they could dodge. Yet as a gun barrel did emerge from the car, D changed his line of thinking. This weapon was considerably larger than the previous ones. In fact…he soon realized it was one of the heavy guns that had been on the troopers last night.

"Oh man…this is gonna hurt, D."

D quickly swerved his motorcycle in one direction away from Inuyasha as the gun opened fire. An explosion seemed to burn off the front of it as the gun erupted. Huge bullet shells went flying from the open window and scattered on the highway. The pavement where D was not only was shot, but huge chunks were blown out of it as a huge ragged foot-deep trail of destruction was dug into the road. Soon, cars behind the group began to crash into the rut and cause more accidents. This weapon was far more powerful than a mere minigun. It was faster too. D had barely swerved one way before the gun shot across the road after him, and soon caught up. D panicked for a moment, not sure which was to turn next. The moment of hesitation cost him. As he thought of swerving enough to get out of range, the train of bullets swerved right in front of his motorcycle. Seeing that, D quickly abandoned his plans. Now, he simply leapt from the motorcycle as hard and far as he could.

"Farewell, Harley Davidson. We hardly knew ye."

This comment from his left hand went through D's mind as fire and metal shards went through his clothes and sank into his flesh. He felt his pale skin soon riddled with burning pain as the motorcycle exploded from gunfire underneath him. D, on his part, went flying through the air, smoking and smoldering and trailing blood throughout it. The blast sent him up a bit higher than intended, and the speed that they were going at was no picnic either. As he hit the ground, despite trying to roll he felt his arms break on impact, the flesh ripped off his palms as the road cut through his gloves and into his skin, his skull crack and one vertebrae get popped out of place as he rolled forward, and the shrapnel driven deeper into his body as the ground sliced through his clothing to rip into his exterior. All in all, it was a painful experience as he tumbled forward in a burning, bleeding pile before coming to a halt on the road, and moving no more.

As for Inuyasha, he got much worse. He hesitated when he saw what happened to D. Not familiar with gas, he didn't know his bike would suddenly explode. What more, while in mid-air he was partially a sitting duck, unable to move or adjust. The gunfire, therefore, swept back around in a flash, and then let into his own body. The dog demon kicked back his head and screamed in agony as heavy bullets shattered his ribs, tore through his arteries, and blasted six inch exit wounds out from his other side. His kimono was soon dyed crimson, his hair soaked with his own blood, and the beast fell to the ground like a rotten tomato, producing a sickening smack as he landed. He too moved no more. The gunfire ceased, and the barrel returned into the limousine as it continued to speed off.

D weakly looked out on the road ahead to see the car fade away into the distance. He cursed himself for not leaping off to try and land on the car earlier. Behind him, he could hear cars screeching and piling up again, stopping at the explosion and bloody bodies laying on the road. He heard Inuyasha grunting and moaning in pain. The dog demon was resilient, but he felt that now the beast must content himself to lay still and be out of action for a little while. Those wounds were too serious for him to be able to bounce back from. D himself tried to contain his pain as he felt his spinal disk slowly press its way back into place, the bloody puddle he was laying in get sucked back into the wounds, and his palms and back itch from new pale skin stretching over it. For now, he lay there, letting his body put itself back together before trying anything new.

Soon, the hunter began to hear sirens in the distance. An ambulance…or the police, more likely. He had just turned Budapest upside down, after all, along with his friends. However, he was relieved to feel a blast of wind from overhead come first. He looked up, and could see nothing, but still he felt the air press down over him, and could sense a large object coming down. Grunting, he was now able to push himself up off the ground. He did so, and reached his naked yet now healed hands behind him and began to yank out pieces of debris one by one. The wounds quickly closed behind him. As he did, he felt the blast of wind die down a little, and saw an opening appear out of reality in mid-air above him. Soon, a hole was exposed that led into a metal interior, and framed inside were the remaining members of D's team. Apparently, they had met up with Washu during the chase. Lupin, Kei, and Genma quickly jumped out.

The thief surveyed the area in amazement. He whistled hard and shook his head. "Wow…I think even on a good day I have a hard time topping this."

"…Me too." D grimly answered, pulling himself up into a standing position. He cracked his neck once, putting the spine back in alignment, and then resumed his normal position although his body still smoked.

The sirens continued to draw closer, and D was eager to get out of there. Looking ahead to the highway, he saw that already one car was nearly there. He turned back to the others, and saw that Kei had rushed down to Inuyasha's side. She looked shocked at the amount of damage he had taken, stunned that he was alive. Genma turned as well to him, and after a moment rushed over to the dog demon's side as well. He quickly bent down next to him.

"My god…" Kei spoke breathlessly. She looked to Genma, and saw that the immortal was already reaching underneath Inuyasha to lift him up. "Should…we even bother?" She asked, finding it hard to belief Inuyasha wasn't on death's door.

"His injuries are serious, but with medical attention he'll recover within days." D responded calmly. "His kind are remarkably resilient."

"Well, let's get Rover to his kennel, then." Genma replied with a calm little smile. D stared at him with a bit of intrigue. He didn't seem to be all that miffed that he had failed in his own objective. Looking up to see Miyu still in the entrance way, he saw that she certainly was. It was an insult to her to be stopped by simple humans, let alone having to be helped by a vampire hunter. At any rate, Genma leapt right into the entrance and vanished inside. Kei marveled a bit at the gallon of blood left behind on the road in Inuyasha's wake, but then she sighed, turned, and began to enter as well.

D was following after when his fears came true. A cop car arrived. Lupin was turning to follow D when the car screeched to a halt. Because of that, the thief stopped and turned, and D cast a glance behind as well as he walked up to the entrance. A door opened up on the side, and out came a strange old man. He seemed to not notice right off the bat that they were vanishing into a hole in space, but rather was focused on the accident and people still there. He looked a bit odd, and was dressed in an old trench coat and hat like those gumshoes from detective novels. He also was distinctly Japanese, although he spoke well enough Hungarian to them as he emerged.

"Alright everyone, take it easy here." He announced, putting his hands up in a stopping gesture as he walked forward. "Everyone stay where you are. We have some questions to ask. I'm with Interpol and we've got-"

The man abruptly froze. D noticed that he was staring right at Lupin. He seemed to recognize him for the first time, although he looked a little confused. He seemed to be scanning him to see if something was true. What more, Lupin seemed to be much the same, staring at him in confusion. They both did so for a moment, until Lupin finally breathed a word of shock.

"…Pops!"

"…Lupin!" The officer spoke in shock. "…No! It can't be! You were supposed to have died years ago… Your ghost has come back to haunt me!"

"Uh, nevermind that Pops. Gotta go!" Lupin suddenly announced. Immediately, he turned and shot for the opening, and leapt inside in front of D. "We'll do some catching up later, ok?"

D frowned, not bothering to ask questions, and simply stepped inside. The door quickly closed behind them. As it did, the officer grew infuriated. "What? Disappearing into thin air! You are a ghost! No…you…you've been sent back…sent back to give me another chance to get you! Damn you Lupin! I'll bring you in yet if it takes me another seventy years!"

D didn't think much of this. He merely tried to screen out this annoying man's diatribe as Ryo-Ohki lifted off and shot away in the sky.

* * *

NOTE: ...I couldn't resist. :)

And Kei's psionic slapping of Lupin was somewhat inspired by a scene in an old, depressing, and obscure Anime film called "Red Mars".


	6. The Unknown Assailant

**Chapter Six**

_March 25, 2015 – Somewhere over the Atlantic_

* * *

"Is Inuyasha going to be alright?"

Washu, who had just reentered the cockpit, merely smiled and gave a peace sign. "Ah, don't you worry about our little puppy. Jurai healing technology is the best in the universe…or at least this galaxy. There's one other planet about 11.1 billion light years from here that can do a bit better… So long as no one gets hasty and pulls his plug he'll be fine."

"Will he be ready to fight by the time we reach the landing site?" D inquired, arms crossed and leaning against a wall.

"No can do on that, big guy." Washu answered ruefully. "Not until tomorrow at earliest."

"This is stupid." Miyu cursed, glaring at the ground impatiently. "We should have just assaulted him at the airfield. Or shot him out of the sky."

"He's still our only link." D responded. "We can't afford to kill him until he can tell us more."

"Then like I said," Miyu darkly answered. "We should have assaulted him on the airfield."

"We're not sure how much he knows about us." D simply answered. "He obviously realized you were a vampire. They also knew more about where we were going than I thought they would, ever since the moment we left that tunnel. He was probably hoping we'd follow him. He also probably radioed ahead to that dock to let them know that we knew where he would go next. Following him may be our only way to get to the heart of this. If we had stopped him there, he may have made sure that whatever was waiting at that port left before we ever got there."

"Well, he hasn't said anything yet." Washu answered. "His communication is clear, and it looks as if that plane is headed right for Panama."

"Seems like a trap, to me." Genma mentioned. "Why else would they not change their plans in the least? Especially since they know we know where they're going next?"

"If it is a trap, it's one for them." D reassured. "We've come out on top in two fights already. Once he reaches Panama, his plane will be out of fuel. If the ship is going through the Panama Canal, it can't go anywhere else. They'll be nowhere to run anymore."

Miyu still crossed her arms and looked to the ground. "You should still let me handle this my way. Just let me slake my thirst and we won't have to worry about him trying to be brave or committing suicide before we can tell him anything."

"Not to worry, honey." Lupin confidently answered. "If there's one thing I learned about these big guys, it's that they're far more willing to send out other people to die then to get whacked them-"

Lupin didn't finish, for suddenly the monstrous shadow of Larve towered over him. He froze and went white as a sheet, and held back in a cringing pose. Miyu was right in front of him now, and glaring at him with angry red eyes. Her face was hard as flint and cold as ice.

"…I'm not your _honey_." She snapped. With that, she turned and walked away. Larve grunted an inhuman noise at Lupin, then turned and followed after her. The thief swallowed hard again, but then relaxed a little and broke out of his frozen pose.

"We shouldn't let them get away again." Kei commented.

"We won't." D answered. "We'll all confront him right on the landing area. As for the ship, Washu and the Ryo-Ohki will make sure it doesn't escape."

"Actually it's just Ryo-Ohki." Washu corrected. "And she can handle it on her own. I'll be tagging along with you guys on this one."

Everyone turned to Washu with a puzzled look at that. Kei raised an eyebrow to the odd little woman herself. "…Why?"

"I want to have a word with this Thorne guy…particularly about what he was doing with those kids at the orphanage."

Genma snorted. "We'd get that out of him anyway."

D, on the other hand, looked mildly interested, or as much as he could with his stoic expression. "So it wasn't a dummy corporation. They really were interested in children. Why is that?"

"I can think of only one reason."

Everyone turned again at this latest news. But now, they found themselves looking at Kei. The woman had her eyes to the ground, and seemed still and cold as she stood there. "…The same thing with the Akira project. They wanted to use children. Maybe it was because their brains weren't fully operational yet. Maybe it's because they wanted to install a greater sense of command in them."

Genma offered a nod to this in acknowledgement. "Children are far easier to condition and train. They can be taught to do certain things before their own morals are fully prepared and steadfast. They can make effective tools when fully grown."

"All the more reason for me to see this Thorne face-to-face." Washu simply answered. However, D caught her voice. She was strangely serious for once, and sounding less like her kid version and more like a woman. He had recognized that before. Evidently, behind her façade, Washu was harboring a deeper hurt than let on. This mission seemed to hit a private note with her. This could be a bad thing later on. But for now, the hunter let it slide. He turned his attention back to the window.

"We'll have our answers along with Thorne soon enough." He replied. "Let's just be ready."

* * *

_March 25, 2015 – Westernmost Lock on the Panama Canal_

* * *

The group, minus Inuyasha, was ready to go an hour later. They had fully reloaded their weapons, changed back into their normal attire, and were now gathered around the opening of the Ryo-Ohki. They had reduced speed considerably now. Their ship was flying much lower, and with the camouflage in play as well. Washu was still at the helm for the moment as they continued to go forward, lightly brushing against the low-lying shrubbery around the first lock. There wasn't any ship out there at the moment, but that meant little. It was still a little early and though they couldn't see it, it could still be coming.

As they continued to pass over, a road became visible. The Ryo-Ohki spun around and began to follow after it, tracing it as it moved to the first lock on the Canal. It was a thin road, paved, but probably most likely for the service personnel. Sure enough, it soon terminated about two hundred feet from the water. There, a wire mesh gate with barbed wire and a computerized lock kept any from going further. Just a little bit further than that were the officials in the lock, supervising traffic. Nothing was going through right now. The Canal had been falling into more disuse since the days of the aircraft carrier, and today there were few ships that could fit through it. The project to expand it had been delayed countless times. Still, D normally would have been uneasy about being here in broad daylight. He kept forgetting the nature of the ship they were in.

Washu read from another one of those hovering screens as she continued to survey the area. She slowly brought their own ship to a halt, and looked over her own screens. "Ok…they seem to have touched down the plane at a more regional airport…though it could be theirs. Not much radio communication. They should be headed this way pretty soon."

"And they'll probably be taking a car." Miyu commented. She turned an eye to D. "They could escape on that, you know."

"Leave that to me." Washu brightly answered, patting the front of her small jacket. "Now let's get going."

The Ryo-Ohki lowered a bit more, enough for its crew to dismount. Once there, the floor dematerialized, revealing an opening to the world below. D quickly hopped out, followed closely by Kei and Lupin. Genma hopped out next, and turned up to Miyu. As the vampire princess leapt out, to her surprise he caught her, and then gently set her down on the ground next to him. Miyu looked to Genma in surprise for a moment.

"I…I didn't ask for your help." She said, although her voice was more surprised than angry, which was a definite change.

"I know." Genma answered with a smile.

Memories of the early conversation went into Miyu's head. Despite her look of being a cold monster, some of the ancient emotion she kept locked away inside herself stirred a bit. She swallowed, mimicking her old sensations of anxiety, and then turned and struggled to return to her emotionless state, walking after the other. Genma snorted a bit in chuckling, and then followed after her.

At last, Washu leapt out from the craft. On doing so, she turned back up to the entrance in mid-air. It immediately closed, leaving nothing but blank sky to the naked eye. But Washu called out to it immediately. "Ok, Ryo-Ohki. You get in front of the lock and make sure no one gets by. Try not to atomize them though, would you?"

A sonic, echoing "meow" seemed to answer Washu through the sky. Then, the group quickly covered their heads and eyes as the ship took off into the air, blasting air and debris ferociously down underneath them. The trees rippled and shook, but soon the wave had passed. The sky was clear again, and the dust that had been whipped up slowly settled down once more. With that done, things became calm with the group again, and they all looked to one another.

"Right." D simply said. "Let's get ready."

Washu ran out down the road. The others got into position and readied themselves for another fight. No doubt, they would have some sort of large weapon waiting for them. And they were short one man. But they'd have to make do. Washu ran off the edge of the road far ahead, went to a nearby tree, and proceeded to attach something to it. D thought his keen eyes saw some sort of laser or sensor snake out from it, but it lasted only a moment. That done, she quickly ran to the opposite side of the street, and did the same thing with the other tree. After she was finished, the chibi scientist ran back up to the others. Once she was close enough, she gestured behind her.

"Whatever you do, don't get between those trees." She warned.

"I'll take your word for it." Lupin answered, having already seen quite enough strange things in the past two days to merit not wanting to risk seeing more.

After that, the group was left to wait with weapons drawn and battle ready. D pondered over the last few turns of events. True, he was intrigued as to how much the enemy knew about them before they came. But what more, he realized that the enemy had made a rather bad slip up this morning. They had voluntarily given information after their cover was blown. They had told them to go to Panama even though they knew they were their enemy. That could perhaps be arrogance or stupidity…but in D's experience he had reason never to trust anything so simple. Far too many had conspired against him in the past for him to allow that level of trust. He had a dark feeling that something else was amiss. He wasn't used to this kind of operation. He needed more information about his enemy, and he knew precious little. And as always on the hunt, he had to know more about his enemy than they knew about him… He had a feeling that balance was shifted dangerously in this case.

At last, the sounds of a car began to come forward. It was moving fast, and the engine was visibly humming loudly from it. The others readied themselves again, tensing up. Lupin turned a look behind him, and saw that Washu was simply standing with hands behind her back.

"Don't you have a weapon?" He asked.

"Nah." She simply answered. "I'm relying on you big strong types to do the dirty work. I'm sure you'll have no trouble defending little old me."

Lupin cracked a grin and looked back ahead. "Well, that's ok by me. I always was a sucker for the chivalrous type."

"So now you're hitting on the child…" Kei murmured aloud.

"Hey, don't worry Kei-ty Pie!" Lupin answered with a big smile at his own new nickname. "There's plenty of Lupin to go around!"

"I _am_ married." Kei icily answered.

"Didn't stop the last three women…" Lupin responded.

Kei snapped her head around to Lupin in shock. "What!"

"Quit arguing and focus." D ordered sharply.

Kei scowled and looked ahead, while Lupin whistled once and then did the same.

Finally, the car came. It rounded the bend, casting up dust behind it and traveling at a considerable speed. It continued to rush forward at that velocity for the moment. If the occupants had recognized the six before them, then they didn't have time to respond yet. Instead, they sailed right past Washu's two trees before D heard the brakes squeal. The car skid a bit as it came forward, but it continued to slow and stay on the road as it rushed at the six of them. When it was a mere twenty feet away, it finally came to a halt. D examined the car for a moment, only to find that it was another black sedan like before. There, it halted for a moment. Then the driver abruptly went in reverse, squealed the tires again as he burnt rubber for a second, then tore away from the six of them as fast as he could.

D watched the car back up for a moment, wondering what Washu had done to create a barrier to them. The others patiently stood still and waited, seeing the car back up and up closer to the two trees. At last, it went into their path.

A brief flash of light and a split second of dematerialization followed. Then, much to the group's surprise, the car was right in front of them. Its tires were still on the road. It was still accelerating, and instantly took off at its previous speed before the teleport, but it was now in front of them. The car continued to back up again. Evidently, the driver didn't realize what was going on. Or perhaps he thought he had misjudged how far he was from the six. Now, he was going at a faster speed away from them. He went back into the trees again, and once again, the car reappeared in a flash right in front of them. This time, the car backed up only a few feet before the driver applied the brakes hard and ground the vehicle to a halt. The car grew still, and the engine sputtered slowly. Now, the two sides faced each other down, and no one said a word.

Washu merrily called in front of her. "Try that as many times as you want." She informed. "You'll always end up right back at this spot."

"And if you're thinking of ramming us, don't bother." Miyu confidently added, the wicked smile returning to her face.

"So why don't you be a good boy and come out to play?" Lupin ended with a grin.

The car did nothing for a moment. D supposed they were trying to think of their options. That was a good sign. If they had readily gotten out, that would have meant they had a plan. But at last, the engine to the car shut down. The passenger's side door opened, and a single black suit stepped out. He had a gun, but it was kind of pointless to use it. There were too many of them. The opposite rear door opened, and soon coming up and standing tall out of it was none other than Thorne. To D's disgust, he had one of those stinking confident smiles so many of his opponent's had on their faces when he met them. This one had a little bit of cold hardness in it as well, some traces of military. But overall it was one of confidence and pride. No matter what he did, those opponents never lost that smile until the day a sword ran through their hearts.

"You stinking japs…" Thorne hissed as he came out of the car. "This what the UN sends against us? A bunch of slit-eyed freaks? You think six of you monsters are going to stop what we've been doing? We've had CIA, FBI, KGB, and all other organizations you can think of trying to get on our case, and I'll be damned if a bunch of unevolved civilians from Japan is going to be any more successful than them."

"Hmm." Lupin replied, amused. "I've been called a lot of racial slurs before, but freaks I think is a little strong."

"I'm not talking about you, you slimy, perverted criminal." Thorne answered harshly. "The monster in you is your twisted little libido. I'm talking about the rest of you. We know all about you. Vampires…aliens…failed science experiments…even demons…" With this, he grinned a bit more. "Although it seems as if one of them wasn't much of a match for the 21st century. I only see six of you here. And each one of you aren't any better than common criminals at best, bloodthirsty terrorists at worst."

"I could care less about what some human calls me." Miyu answered in a bored voice. "But before I tear your throat out for what you did to me, I would like to know about how you knew about this."

"We've known about it for years." Thorne responded smugly. "What do you think House was concerned with? At the core of its research was to do nothing less than create the perfect soldier. That's what I mean when I call you all unevolved. You're all backwater compared to what we've achieved. You're myths and fairy tales. The true power lies in the mind. The Colonel realizes that. Oh…he realizes it better than anyone." He grinned at this, like it was a private joke. "Compared to him, all of your are obsolete. Even you, alien girl."

Washu frowned. "Call me Chibi Washu!"

"So you think you have us, do you?" Thorne spoke with a snort, crossing his arms in front of him. "Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. We actually have you. So no, it won't be you who will be making any demands today. It will be us. We want that one." Here, he raised a hand and pointed right at Kei. "That rogue agent. That terrorist. We may have the Akira DNA, but we need to know how to best integrate it into an organism. We could use a successful subject, or at least one with a brain that's been activated."

Kei scowled. "How about I just shut down your brain from here instead?"

Thorne raised an eyebrow at that. "So…still insisting on thinking you're in control here, eh?"

Washu suddenly spoke out a new line of discussion, cutting through the bantering. "As long as you're there gloating, why not tell us why you're so interested in children? Why do you need them?"

"Children have numerous aspects to them that we find desirable, particularly orphans." Thorne explained routinely. "They can be molded…conditioned…turned to do what we want. We used to always condition them to be perfect killers. Even at age twelve they were good enough to kill entire platoons single-handedly. They can be taught to fear authority at an early age and brainwashed to do the same the rest of their lives. They can have commands implemented easily enough. If any could break free, their histories would make them despondent or suicidal, to ensure they would never be used against us. They are ideal for our current purposes because of their developing brains. But orphans are best because they have no attachments. No one is around to persuade them to ignore us, and they have nothing to resist for. In addition, none will be missed."

"Pheh…somehow, I think you won't be either…"

The group turned their heads to the emerging sound. To D's surprise, he saw Inuyasha limping out of the woods and making his way to the rest of the group. His clothes were still blood-soaked, as were his bandages on his body. But his sword was at his side and he looked fierce as always.

Thorne snorted. "The dog lives, eh?"

D frowned and turned back to Thorne. "You should be resting."

"I don't take orders from anybody." Inuyasha grimaced as he limped onward, looking in constant pain. "I've fought with worse injuries. And the lard ass in front of us is going to pay for what state I'm in. I didn't want to hang around that stupid ship-cat while the rest of you went to work."

"Enough talk." Genma finally stated, drawing his sword in his non-gun hand. "Thorne, cut the crap. Either give up now or we'll show you why just the seven of us were sent."

Thorne kept smiling. "I agree." He spoke darkly. "There has been enough talk. Now it's time for you all to die."

With that, the other rear door opened. Everyone immediately turned their attention to it. Soon, emerging from the sedan…was a rather unusual looking sight. This newest person was considerably shorter than the rest of the men. The person looked only a little taller than Washu, and D soon recognized it to be a kid. However, his inner senses told him differently. He smelled that there was an age on this one. There were a few lifetimes of experience inside this person. To others, however, like Lupin and Kei, it seemed to just be a regular child, one about twelve or thirteen.

The person readily walked in front of the sedan. He was dressed in total black, even his head covered. He seemed rather like a stereotypical ninja. But his gloved hands were in fists, and the one part of him that was exposed, his eyes, burned with a fiery power inside them. The eyes, for D, removed all doubt in his mind that this wasn't a human. They were a stunning, unnatural blue. And they had some power in them and a wisdom that wasn't of mortal men. But what more…they also had some emptiness to them. Whoever this was, it appeared he was under control. It might have had something to do with his headband, which had a large piece of metal in front of it tied to blue cloth. And it was indeed a man…or boy…or whatever. The eyes told him that much.

Washu frowned. "Sending more children to do your dirty work?"

"Guys…this is no kid…"

It was Inuyasha who had spoken that time. The others quickly looked to him, to see a shocked look in his burning yellow eyes. He was looking down to his sword, which he had pulled partially from his sheath. Only it was no longer an old, rusted blade. It looked much fatter and stronger now, with a white tuft of hair around the hilt, like a giant monster's fang.

"What does that-" Genma began to ask.

Thorne cut him off. "Get them, Kohaku."

D could barely track the young man/thing as he shot forward. The sky around him seemed to be cut and wisps of the wind came forth from his arms and legs. Whether that was from him or a result of him shooting through the air so fast D didn't know, for soon he was on their group. The impact of his charge immediately sent Kei and Lupin, the "weak ones" flying, while the others dove for cover. He himself smashed his forehead into Inuyasha's and the dog demon went flying back. But as he did, the one, Kohaku, did some sort of gesture with his hands before shoving one forward. An invisible wind bolt then shot forward, and seemed to shoot right through Inuyasha's torso. Another splurt of blood shot out, and the dog demon yelled in agony as he fell to the ground.

Genma managed to recover quickly, and soon dashed at Kohaku from behind. As he reached him, he drew his sword and swiped at the youth's back. To everyone's surprise, however, Kohaku instantly broke apart into a stream of while butterflies. It was as if his body had been made of only them, and immediately they exploded into a transient cloud. Genma looked about in confusion at this, putting his sword at his side but drawing his gun. However, soon after he did this, D saw what happened. The butterflies came back into one mass again, but this time it was behind Genma. As he began to dash toward the two of them to help, Kohaku suddenly reverted back into solid, human form. Genma's eye twitched to this, and he quickly turned and fired a shot right behind him. But he was too slow. Kohaku knocked the gun away with one hit, and brought his other hand to his covered mouth and seemed to blow a kiss. But it wasn't a kiss that came off. It was a vicious, living tongue of fire. It spiraled through the sky before exploding right on Genma's face. Once there, it instantly burst, setting his entire head on fire. The assassin stumbled back, raising his hands to his face as he did so.

D was on Kohaku by then, but the small creature was fast and ready. As he swung his nodachi at him, Kohaku quickly leapt forward to avoid it. D tried slicing him across next, but something else happened he didn't expect. Not only did the individual jump into the sky, but once he was there he continued to rise. D realized, to his shock, he could levitate under his own power. He had little time to remark on this, however, for at once Kohaku brought his hands together and ignited a ball of light. This one was burning with UV radiation and power, and D, dhampire as he was, couldn't bear to look at it. The light did more than blind him…he felt his very retinas burn under it, and was forced to look away. That was a bad move, for moments later Kohaku sent down a new attack, a hailstorm of razor sharp needles. Soon, metal shards were piercing D all over, shooting into his flesh and slicing his skin and clothing up. The hunter yelled out and struggled to shield himself against them.

By now, Lupin and Kei were up again. Both of them had their guns out, and were opening fire on Kohaku. From behind, Washu herself was beginning to pull out some sort of device that the group could only assume was a weapon. Kohaku quickly shot back down to the ground and crouched against it. Lupin and Kei kept shooting, but he had enough time to seize a dead leaf off the ground as well as a blade of grass. He then turned to Lupin and threw the leaf at him with all his strength. The growth hit the ground at his feet, and immediately exploded into a cascade of leaves. Whether they were propelled by wind or moved like water, they somehow formed a continuous torrent that poured right at Lupin. The thief only gulped a moment before they crashed into him, and rapidly tore him off his feet and sent him flying back into Washu. The little scientist had no time to use her weapon before the two collided and were sent falling to the ground.

Immediately after, Kohaku turned his attention to Kei. The young woman glared at it a moment, but then threw down her gun, braced herself, and aimed an open palm at the youth. A moment later, a massive invisible force ripped through the area around him, and the thing was almost ripped off of his feet. But almost was as far as he got, for soon after being pushed back, he summoned some sort of power to himself, and stabilized. The wind seemed to gather around him, as he was able to put his feet back down and focus again. Gritting her teeth, Kei pushed harder. Now, Kohaku was being pushed hard. He had to shield himself, and his feet dragged across the ground. But still he wouldn't yield, and only summoned more power to stop himself. Kei tried summoning more strength, but she soon was unable. The strain was too much on her head, and she soon felt herself beginning to ache and hurt. Her nerves were locking up and her focus began to break down. During this interim, Kohaku was finally able to stabilize himself enough to throw the blade of grass at Kei.

The blade did nothing until it landed right on Kei's chest. Then, immediately, it sprung forth with new life. The blade seemed to split into some hundred blades, and huge, fat, green blades of grass began to explode from the initial one. Kei broke off all control and looked down to the grass, and soon saw the blades wrap themselves around her torso. Other blades shot out and pinned her forearms to her sides, then more went out to pin her elbows, then more to her forearms, wrists, and hands. The blades spread down to her legs too, soon locking them together and wrapping them in greenery as well. The blades moved up to her head next, and she could only watch as they covered her neck, her mouth, her nose, her eyes, and finally the top of her scalp. Within a few seconds, all that was left of Kei was a vaguely human-shaped bundle of grass. The bundle quickly fell to the ground and lay there, its prisoner unable to move a muscle.

Kohaku rose and stabilized himself after that, seeming to relax now that the initial fight was over. He then began to walk toward the fallen bundle of grass. But as he did so, a body calmly stepped in front of him and blocked the way. He looked up, and soon found himself gazing into the burning red eyes of Miyu.

"Now that these weaklings are out of the way…" She commented. "Let's see you try your little parlor tricks against a real opponent."

Kohaku hesitated only a moment, but then crossed his hands together and swung forward. Moments later, another hailstorm of leaves erupted from his hands and thundered toward Miyu. But these were different. They were fresh and sharp as razors. They sliced up the ground and branches that happened to get in their way. They darted around so much that anything that came in front of them was sliced to ribbons. But Miyu merely stood her ground. She waited until the leaves were almost to her, then simply made a cutting gesture. The leaves instantly broke their charge forward, and then vanished.

"You can do better than that, can't you?" She asked mockingly.

Kohaku hesitated only a moment. Then, he raised both arms into the sky, seeming to reach out to the trees around him. Moments later, a bending and snapping sound was heard. Miyu looked to either side, hearing that sound coming out from either side. As she stood there, however, a sudden rushing came forth from the woods. The branches on the trees from either side snaked out, growing larger toward the vampire and becoming long and ropelike. Within a few moments, the branches reached her, and began to wrap around her body in the same way that they wrapped around Kei. She watched them as they quickly enveloped her torso, until they moved to her head and enclosed that as well. There was soon nothing but a bundle of wood attached to the trees around it, and they began to contort around their victim…

Until, in a flash, the trees stopped moving. At once, the leaves on the branches began to wither. The bark began to peel. The wood turned grey and brittle. A few moments later, the cocoon of branches suddenly shattered, revealing a very calm looking vampire princess, surrounded now with a cold wave of dark energy. She glared with a smile at Kohaku.

"Finished with your parlor tricks?" She inquired. "Please. Even weakened as I am in daylight, I'm still more than a match for you."

Kohaku didn't respond for a moment. He stood still, as if somewhere he was planning something new. Miyu smiled calmly back at him for a while. But then, most suddenly, she snapped around and looked at Thorne. Her hand gestured toward his own, which was now held up, and holding the same can of spray in it that he had used earlier. He held it quivering for a moment, surprised that she had turned to him. But then, at once, the bones in his hand twisted and contorted. His hand was wrung around in a twist, as if it was nothing more than a wet rag. He cried out in pain at that, a sound that brought a wider smile to Miyu's lips. His body contorted in agony, and the spray was knocked from his wrist. Miyu watched it as it fell down from his grip, then gestured again at it. Instantly, the can was obliterated.

"Now there's nothing to save you from me." She spoke with a small chuckle, then turned her attention back to Kohaku. "Make your move."

Kohaku hesitated only a moment longer. But then, in a flash, he shot forward at her. He didn't run, but instead levitated and shot right at her. Miyu angled herself, and soon took off in much the same fashion, soaring straight for the thing. He reached her first, however, and swung his hand at her in a cutting motion, causing a great blade to appear in the air and swipe at her head. Miyu merely ducked under it, and then drove a long-nailed fist forward into his chest. As before, Kohaku immediately burst into a storm of butterflies as her fist came forward, turning into nothingness. The butterflies immediately swooped around her, and fluttered behind her like before.

"Fool!" Miyu mocked, then turned around and cut her hands at the swarm. Immediately, a dark twister seemed to come up from the ground. It quickly extended into the air, and within an instant inhaled the butterflies into it, consuming them all and mixing them into their vortex. They continued to twist and turn for a few moments, whirling them in a massive fit of chaos. But then, at once, the butterflies melded back together and once again became the black-clad form of Kohaku. Satisfied, Miyu swept her hand to the side, and a moment later the individual was flung through the air and straight into a tree trunk. He hit with a sickening thud, and slowly slid down it.

Kohaku didn't hesitate long, but soon shot up again and tore straight at Miyu. He again tried swiping at her middle with the air blade, but Miyu easily moved to the side again by tearing into the air. Laughing darkly, she sliced her claws down across Kohaku's face, tearing through the fabric and slicing through his cheek. Another slash ripped open the flesh on his stomach. Finally, Miyu placed both of her palms together in a clam shell gesture, and aimed right at Kohaku. In an instant, a new tornado erupted from her hands. But this one generated hail and ice rocks in its wake, and the wind was a cutting, freezing blast. It tore into Kohaku like he was made of paper, and violently threw him back against the tree again. This time, the power partially cracked the tree, and as he slowly slid down afterward he seemed to be truly injured and incapacitated this time.

Miyu snickered at him, and then calmly began to stroll forward. "Finished already?" She taunted. "Good. All this work has made me thirsty. You'll quench it nicely."

By this point, D had managed to somehow rise again. The others seemed too hurt from their blows, and Genma was still extinguishing himself. D could barely move. The needles were still piercing him inside and out, and some were driven into arteries and nerves. He struggled to overwhelm them as he spoke out. "Don't…"

"Oh, don't worry hunter." Miyu confidently answered as she strolled up to the fallen Kohaku. He was getting up now, but was going too slowly. "He lost any chance of getting immortality from me when he challenged me. He'll merely ease my hunger."

Now up to Kohaku, Miyu shot out a hand and seized him by the neck. She immediately hoisted him off the ground and into the air. D stumbled on both his feet, glaring helplessly at Miyu. As he did, the vampire princess reared her head back and opened her mouth wide. Her fangs grew inside her, and her true vicious nature was revealed. Then, like a ravenous wolf into carrion flesh, she dipped her head forward and plunged them into Kohaku's neck.

One might think that vampire feeding could be messy, but only sloppy ones were. "Neat" vampires could barely leave a noticeable mark. And such was Miyu. Soon, she was drinking from the thing, and it seemed victory was assured. D grunted and looked at her. This Kohaku seemed strong enough to take feeding for a while, but soon he'd be dead. It would only take a few moments…

But then, all of the sudden, something happened.

Kohaku's closed eyes opened…and they blazed green and fierce. From beneath his bloody mask, D could tell his teeth were gritting. He began to seize and growl. As he did, his body began to tighten up, and his hands balled into fists. Then, most suddenly, his clothing began to rip. His body was growing bigger, and it was shredding his clothes. As it grew, however, D noticed that the revealed skin was not flesh, but white and scaly. It kept growing, and as it did the neck that Miyu fed off of began to lengthen. Green hair began to spring out from his scalp from beneath the hood, and it was made of feathers. The same began to happen to more of his body, as white feathers began to spring out as well from beneath the clothing. As the shreds of black cloth began to fall from his body, D saw that Kohaku's body was twisting and becoming long and serpentine. A tail was growing from behind him. His hand were becoming clawlike. His face was enlonging, tearing away his mask and becoming a massive, lizard jaw. Large, razor sharp teeth came from beneath the mask. Miyu, despite the somewhat euphoric state vampires entered when they fed, began to look surprised, and reared back a bit at surprise at her meal. D gazed in shock. The human body was gone. Kohaku now revealed his true nature: a white dragon.

The white dragon turned to look at the feeding Miyu, now regarding her as an annoying little insect. It hissed a moment, before driving its own head down and turning the tables on Miyu by plunging its massive mouth into _her_ neck. Only the dragon was not clean like her. Its massive incisors tore not only into her neck, but lower into her torso and innards. Its large teeth tore through veins and arteries alike, ripping out tendons and ligaments. Now, it was Miyu's blood that fountained out from her body. In huge gushing spurts, it came forth from around the mouth of the dragon, forming a bloody froth and pouring down on the ground below. The dragon snorted a moment longer at this…then, in anger, it snapped its head around and flung the vampire's body against the same tree he was flung against. Miyu was nearly bitten in half, but hitting the tree snapped her spine in two, and the bloody mess of her body fell to the ground.

The beast snorted, then turned its head back to the others. D groaned inwardly. As he was, he was too weak to fight this monster. And the rest of them were no good. Somehow, Thorne had recruited quite an opponent. Still, he struggled to override the pins within him to draw his sword…

However, Thorne quickly yelled out a command instead. He had managed to put his twisted hand down at his side, and bite back his pain to keep working. "Kohaku!" He ordered. "Forget them! Get their ship! Destroy it!"

Kohaku snorted once, but then turned away from the group obediently. Although the white dragon had no wings, he instantly took off into the sky like a flash. After doing so, he soon was soaring away from the battle area, headed instead toward the mouth of the canal. Unlike them, he didn't seem to care who saw him. That became evident as D's sharp ears soon heard watchmen yelling out in shock and surprise from far ahead. Yet Thorne didn't care about them. He reached his one good hand back into his jacket, and gestured to the other two agents. "Get the girl! Let's get out of here!"

Immediately, the two suits went to work. Another one came out of the back, while the one in the front was already going. That one rushed right over to the grass bundle, which was still motionless. D didn't know whether Kei was unconscious in it or simply couldn't move. He opted for the former, because her psychic powers at least would have moved her. At any rate, the man was fairly strong, for he was able to grab some of the grass bands as if it was nothing more than a hay bale, slung it over his back, and then began to carry it out. The other black suit quickly ran to the gate, already getting out some sort of device from his jacket too. Thorne, sweating and strained, managed to come out as well. D realized he had to do something. He managed to raise his blade, and hobbled a bit more after Thorne.

Unfortunately, the man noticed this. Seeing D coming at him, he finished pulling out the device from his jacket. D caught only a brief look at it, seeing it was some sort of flashlight device. Then, before he could do anything else, Thorne pointed the device at him and turned it on, shooting a flashlight type beam right on D's face. Immediately, horrible, stabbing pain shot through the back of D's skull. He was made blind in an instant. Despite dhampires being resilient to sunlight, they were still hypersensitive…especially to this particular light of a high wavelength, focused UV beam. The pain was overwhelming. Grunting in pain, D fell to the ground, desperately grasping for his eyes. Thorne turned off the device a moment later, then rushed after the agents.

The second man was now at the gate. He quickly put his device to the lock. A moment later, a plume of smoke and the smell of melted steel resulted, and the lock dropped off from the gate. It was immediately flung open, and the black suit quickly rushed through. The one with Kei went a moment later, and Thorne followed up behind. The group, moaning, regenerating, and injured, was powerless to get back up too soon.

Meanwhile, over near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a ship was approaching. However, that wasn't the most important thing going on. What was involved was a great white serpents flying through the sky, and swiping its tail violently at a shape that only it could see. At first, there was only the sound of crashing, and a few fragments of metal suddenly appearing in the sky and then dancing to the ground. But that was only for a moment. Then, in a flash, a ripple of light seemed to trace through the sky, and as it did the shape of a great black object materialized inside it. Moments later, the object shot out some sort of weapon at the white dragon, and a great red beam suddenly sliced against one side of the beast. A splurt of blood went out, and the beast roared in anger. Immediately, an even larger whirlwind than before was summoned together in midair and sailed into the great black ship. Soon, the tornado sucked the object into it, and moments later began to throw it violently away from the canal area. The white dragon shot after it, ignoring its injury and continuing to violently smash against the bulk as it forced it away.

And in the course of doing so…it left the ship free to pass through the locks.

* * *

D wasn't sure how long he was blinded. For a while, he could do nothing but writhe and hope that the pain in his head would lessen. If it was night, he could have recovered more easily. But his body was growing weary of spending so much time in the sun. Still, he managed to regenerate somewhat. His vision began to clear a bit, and the world began to take vague blurry shapes.

As they did, D was also able to focus on sounds. And he was hearing quite a collection. The sirens were now blaring loudly around the area. A massive warning was going out all around, and he heard all sorts of noises yelling in Spanish. The distant sounds of guns cocking and clamor was coming. What more, he heard that the sounds were coming closer. On the road ahead, he heard that heavy footsteps were coming quickly. The local guard had been alerted. Their cover was blown.

Gritting his teeth, D rose a hand to his eyes and began to rub them. "…Washu?" He called out around him, wondering who else was up yet, if anyone.

"A bit of a rough landing, but I'm ok." He heard in response.

"Who else? I can't see."

"Aw man…I just get up and wanna see a pleasant face, and this is all I get. A bunch of bloody bodies… Ew…and you… You're lucky you can't see, paleface."

"…My skin has almost finished covering my body. The dog demon isn't moving. The vampire is putting her spine back together."

D tried turning his head to Washu. It was fairly useless. For now, he couldn't see anything other than a blur with a faint trace of red on top. He kept hearing the sounds incoming, and he felt they were in danger. "Washu, we need to get out of here."

"Um…that's not going to be easy." Washu replied, her voice uneasy and uncertain. "That Kohaku guy is really giving Ryo-Ohki a run for her money. She can't just fly back over here and pick us up right now."

"Then we're in trouble." Genma was heard saying.

"No, not yet." Washu answered. "I've got just the thing. I can give us an emergency transport. Unfortunately, I only have one location designated. It isn't the best, but…"

"Just do it." D answered, not caring right now where it was.

"Ok, you asked for it." Washu replied in a semi-wary tone.

Moments later, D felt the reality about him begin to sweep away, as if he was falling into a new opening. His vision kept clearing, and he saw that the light tones were vanishing around him. Dark monotones were quickly replacing them afterward. A few moments went by, and the sounds began to vanish one by one from around him. The people's voices vanished. The sirens went away. The fierce jungle heat began to vanish all together, replaced by a rather cool breeze. Soon, it seemed like they were in the clear, and free and far away…

Until D realized there was nothing beneath him, and like a stone he fell to the ground, and moments later splashed, along with the others, into a lake.

* * *

NOTE: Anyone confused as to where Kohaku is from? Here's a hint: In a massive Anime crossover, I had to put at least one Miyazaki character in...


	7. Backstabber

**Chapter Seven**

_March 25, 2015 – One Mile outside of the Old Masako Shrine, Japan_

* * *

D had to admit they were not a very good looking bunch right now, as he yanked what he hoped was the last bloody needle from his neck.

Washu's emergency bail out plan had taken them from the Panama Canal all the way back to Japan. It was an astonishing feat, but unfortunately the transport was beaming them directly above a lake. Soon, they had been dumped most suddenly into the water, before they had time to take a breath, and while some of them were still regenerating grievous injuries. By the time they had finally managed to drag themselves out, they were sorry looking indeed.

Kohaku had not been gentle. Lupin had been thrown around so violently that he seemed to have broken a rib and had a mild concussion. Washu herself looked a bit bruised up with a bloody gash on her head, which she had teleported a band-aid for. Miyu, despite having put her body back together, was still clothed in rags and had lost a lot of blood. Now, after all her regeneration she had done today, she truly needed to feed. She looked pale, dizzy, and weak. She was seated on a rock now, and barely moving. Evening was approaching in this part of the world, but even when night came she would still need nourishment. Inuyasha was still in a heap. His body was nearly covered with his own blood, and he was barely breathing. Genma had to drag him out from the water.

Genma was clearly doing the best. Once his body had finished regenerating, he was perfectly normal and the most fully functional out of them all. D had to admit that his own regeneration could only do so much, and at the moment he was in a pathetic state himself. He too had lost a lot of blood…and was sorely tempted to find nourishment of his own. He couldn't believe it. This powerful group had been so easily reduced to nothing in just a few short moments. If one was to attack them now, they might not survive.

D wondered if he had made the right choice. Sore as they were, they could have done something. Lupin and Washu might have been able enough to move. Possibly Genma. They could have moved in and tried to stop Thorne and the others. They might have been able to get to them before they got to the ship. Perhaps he should have stayed back. But then again, they were in a bad situation. The armed forces were coming in. They were in risk of blowing their cover. As it was, hopefully only Thorne had taken the rap for everything. And maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. What was Lupin supposed to do? Make them curl up in disgust with his perverted behavior? And Washu didn't seem to be good for much other than transport and a few gimmicks on the side. It was all trouble to D. He wasn't used to this…this leader business. He was always used to being a solo act. He hated having to worry about others so far as equals were concerned.

"Heh…regretting taking this job yet?"

"…Not now."

Washu was back to typing on that mid-air keyboard again, and grimly shaking her head. "Ryo-Ohki's still tied up…and damaged now. It'll take her at least three hours to get here. By then, it will be too late to get back to Panama."

Lupin groaned. "Aw man…now what're we gonna do? We gotta find Kei and get her back."

Miyu, weak as she was, managed a snort. "The human is of no concern to us. We only need to stop them."

Lupin turned and frowned at her. "Hey! Why you being so heartless? Just 'cause I'm a bit more interested in her than you…but in all honesty you look underage even if you're old enough to be my great, great grandmother…"

"Just shut up…shut up." The vampire princess hissed. "I am sick and tired of having to listen to your complaining every step of this journey. I'm starving right now and I'm in pain, so if you don't want me to feed off _you_, shut your damn mouth!"

"This whole trip has been just a little bit disastrous…" Washu commented.

"And what exactly are you doing about it, other than giving us an unwanted bath?" Genma crossly answered.

"…All of you be quiet." D sternly ordered.

"Yes, let's listen to our leader, who's only led us into one bout of pain after another since we started." Miyu groaned.

"I may be immortal, but I am still feeling plenty of agony from all of this fighting." Genma added, turning accusingly to D. "And what results have we gained yet? I have to grow a new layer of skin just so that we could lose our only contact."

"And I've had my share of pain as well. I'm not asking any of you to follow me. You all are just falling in under that Gendo's orders."

"Alright, alright," Lupin broke in through all of this. "That's all in the past now. What we have to do is save Kei and get this mission finished."

"What a chivalrous pervert…now I've seen everything." Genma uttered as he walked forward, holding his head in the air, rolling his eyes, and strolling over to Washu.

"Well, he's got a point." Washu answered. "No doubt, they'll be using Kei to further whatever they have going on. And I have things I want to see to as well."

"Like what…?" Miyu muttered.

"Like Kohaku, for example." Washu spoke back plainly.

The thief looked to him in puzzlement. "What's there to know, except how to kill him?" Lupin spoke back, honestly sounding surprised.

"He's an interesting specimen." Washu replied, looking up and getting a thoughtful expression. "But more so, I would like to know what's going on over there. If there are any kids involved, I'd like to make sure we get them out as well. And I want to know how he ties in to all this. Where did you find someone like him? I personally thought that white dragons were just myths on this world, but now he's landed my interest."

"…Your interests in specimens are last on our line of objectives." D simply replied. "And rescue is not on our list. What we have to do is get rid of the Akira samples. Nothing more. That is all we were called to do."

"Yeah, Washu." Lupin chimed in, turning to the scientist. "How come you're so heroic all of the sudden? What's with all these kids?"

Washu hesitated for a moment at that. It looked like she had said too much. But after a moment, she turned away and said nothing. She flustered a little. Her normally child-like attitude faltered a moment. But then, she managed to regain herself and turned back to the others. "Well…it wouldn't matter if we did something a little nice for a change, does it? Aren't we supposed to be a group of heroes?"

"I am no hero." Miyu grumbled in reply. "I could care less how many die in this process. But most of all, Kohaku must die. He was no doubt the presence I felt. He's another one on my list. Do whatever you want after that."

However, on hearing that, Washu seemed to react. "Hey…wait a minute…maybe it's not his fault."

"I don't care." Miyu answered. "He's my meat now, especially after tonight."

Washu swallowed for a moment, hesitating. At last, she spoke up again. "Well…I have an idea…"

"So do I." Genma suddenly spoke up, cutting off the scientist. He was right behind her now, and looking up to everyone. His face was perfectly calm and confident. However, D detected that inner malice he had been sensing all along suddenly come out to the surface. Now, what he had restrained for so long bubbled out over his lips and poured forth. A change came over him, and a vile, merciless nature came into him and took over his dark features.

"Why don't I kill you all now while you can't fight back?"

The others snapped up to this on hearing it. They all turned to Genma…and froze. Washu herself suddenly turned white as a sheet. Her features turned into utter horror, and the reason why was just below her, what the others were already seeing. She slowly looked down to her chest, and saw that the end of Genma's blade now protruded from it. He had run her through from behind.

"What the-" Lupin gasped.

Genma merely smiled, his look full of wickedness now. He yanked his blade out of Washu, and the girl developed an empty look as she fell to the ground lifelessly. Next, the immortal turned his dark gaze down to Lupin. The thief gulped in shock, but then quickly lowered his arm and pulled up his firearm. But quick as he was, the ninja was faster. In a flash, Genma closed the distance between them. With one nimble swipe, he sliced the gun in Lupin's hand in half. After doing so, D watched and saw the blade shoot out from behind Lupin's jacket as it too impaled the rogue. Lupin gagged and went pale himself, and soon he fell to the ground as well as Genma shot his blade out again.

The dark assassin turned to D next, still grinning wickedly. After a moment passed, he turned his blade to him and began to slowly move forward. D grit his teeth, and raised his blade up to guard. But it was no good. He had taken too much damage. He knew he wouldn't be a match for this man, not in the state he was in. However, the shock was more what grabbed him. He had always suspected Genma, but not until now did he see his true colors. But why? What was he gaining from this? Why was he doing it now?

"What's the meaning of this?"

The assassin chuckled. "The flimsy United Nations didn't really think that little amount of gold would be enough to appease me, did it? The House is worth much more."

D frowned. "A double crosser, then?"

"Not exactly." Genma calmly replied. "Once I've collected a sizable amount from their little organization, I plan to go ahead on destroying them and getting their weapon back safe and sound. Then I'll still have the gold too. I told you it was a personal matter, after all. But moreover, now that the United Nations has been so kind to free me from my imprisonment that was worse than hell…I plan on rebuilding what I lost right before my fall. If you had any idea of my true ambitions, then you would know it wouldn't be long before this little group would be knocking on _my_ doorstep. Because of that, I might as well destroy all my chief opponents right now. Goodbye, D."

With that, Genma shot forward at D. He moved like a shot, and D immediately saw that he had too much power to try and deflect right away. He didn't have the strength now to do that. It meant he only had one chance…his sword was longer and he had to use that. Summoning his strength, D tried to raise his blade…aim it right for Genma's own heart as he came forward. He barely was able to do so. His power was failing. The blade quivered and he couldn't hold it still. But at the last moment, he managed to hold it…

However, he forgot Genma was an immortal. Though his blade was longer, Genma flung himself on it. Disregarding that it pierced his heart…ignoring that it went through his back and out the other side, he kept pushing in until he drove his own sword into D's heart.

The dhampire reared his head back and roared in agony. Blood splurted forth from his wound. Fluid frothed around his mouth. The sword pierced through to the other side, and blood began to pour out from behind as well. For a moment, D's full vampire nature was revealed. His skin turned ashy white. His eyes turned blue and pupilless. His fangs burst forth from his mouth. But that lasted only a moment. Then, his vampire features receeded, and his own body became pale and lifeless. He too slumped forward, letting go of his nodachi as he did so. He fell to the ground, the sword still in his chest.

Genma now looked pained himself. Blood oozed from his lip. But still, he managed to raise up a hand and seize the hilt of the nodachi. He braced himself, and then with one huge rip yanked it forward. The blade was pulled halfway out in doing so. He raised his hand to grab the blade this time, then yanked it out again. This time, it fully came forth, and clattered to the ground. He gasped and breathed a moment, taking in deep breaths and holding a moment. Slowly, the blood seeped back into his body. The wound closed. After that, he relaxed and was normal, having regenerated from the wound.

That done, Genma turned and looked to Miyu. The vampire princess gaped at him in astonishment. She reacted a bit, but she was too dizzy and weak to do anything. However, he merely smiled at her. "Just a minute, darlin'." He told her. Then, he bent over to the ground and took up D's nodachi. That done, he turned away from both Miyu and D and looked to the fallen Inuyasha. He was still quite unconscious and unable to move. He strolled calmly over to the fallen dog demon, still carrying the sword with him. After a few moments, he finally was at his side. That done, he raised the blade over his head, hesitated for a moment, making sure Inuyasha did nothing, then brought the blade down hard on his neck.

A few seconds later, Miyu, dizzy and weak as she was, saw Inuyasha sliced into five pieces, his head lying separate from the others. In her shock, she realized they were all dead. Genma had killed them all in moments. Miyu looked up to the sky. The sun was still up. Larve couldn't come out yet. She was in trouble. The area wasn't shady enough for him to even come forth, leaving her all but defenseless. She couldn't kill Genma. The man lowered his sword after this, and then turned to the vampire princess. He still looked menacing and wicked. He seemed the incarnate of evil and wickedness now. Miyu hesitated, not knowing what to do. In the end, however, Genma's features softened. He turned more normal and charming. He lost his rough look, and became more kind and calm seeming.

"Well, Miyu, what are you waiting for?"

The vampire princess' worry suddenly turned to puzzlement and confusion. "What?"

Genma gestured around him. "Look at the banquet I've laid out for you. Four different sources of blood for you to engorge yourself on. But why not do the hunter, first? Then you won't have anything to fear anymore."

Miyu blinked in puzzlement. She couldn't believe this. "You…don't want to kill me?"

Genma snickered. "I thought that would have been obvious from earlier, Miyu. Didn't I tell you at that entrance I would provide for you? You're the ideal person I'd like as my companion and partner."

Miyu's surprise continued, although her fear abated. "Partner?"

"Of course." Genma responded. "You haven't had much respect in your life, have you? Despite being a vampire princess. Yes…in this age many have forgotten about the fear they used to have for you…and me…and all like us. They forgot about the respect. But I intend to reinstate all that. In my day, I was the head of the seven greatest warriors in the world, and now I intend to reassemble them, and I would like you to be first to join."

Miyu said nothing, merely stared back and listened.

"Now you can have whatever you want, Miyu." Genma went on. "We can cause fear among the humans of this world, a primal fear of the unknown that many have forgotten, but is still deep within them. That fear will lead to respect. You see how weak they have grown. None now remain to oppose us. I have seen to that. Together we'll achieve wealth and power the likes of which none have ever dreamed. I was only coming into my prime last time, but now I'm much stronger. Together, nothing can beat us. Let us bring in a new age, one where we will endure forever. Wouldn't you love it if the world admired you rather than feared you…that desperately lingered for what you can give them as if it was the most precious thing on earth? Just say the word, Miyu."

The vampire princess hesitated after hearing that. She looked over to D, seeing her fallen foe. The day would inevitably come, she knew, in which he would be sent for her. But that didn't matter now. Now…she could satiate her own growing hunger off of him. He could be gone forever, but she could persist. And indeed…who could stop her now? And yes…Genma was the first she had met that had accepted her for what she was. He knew her nature. He knew what she represented, and he wanted it. He wanted her to be who she truly was. And why not? Why not put an end to all of this duality…and just pass totally into one side? She had fed on plenty, caused plenty of misery in her own day…so why not go the rest of the way?

It did tempt her…but in the end she could not abide by it. The princess formed a frown, and looked up to Genma.

"No."

Genma raised an eyebrow. "No? Why not? What else have you?"

"My self respect, for one." Miyu darkly answered. "Tantalizing as a picture you paint, it is one I dedicated my life to erasing. I've spent all my time in this cursed existence of a vampire hunting those who prey on the weak, as you would have me do."

Genma merely snorted. "But what care you for the weak? They're just your food."

Miyu grit her teeth. True, she did think that way. Weak…fragile…emotional beings…she hated them all. For a long time, the mere sight of them disgusted her. Their mere showing of emotion make her want to vomit. But now…that had changed. As her enemies had diminished and she had remained, continuing to feed off of one needy life after another, Miyu began to realize the true source of her hate. She was jealous…jealous that they would get the right to die and feel and bleed and have a life. Powerful as she was, strong as she was, she could never have that. No amount of strength she could obtain would allow her to have that. How much she would have given at times just to feel the warmth of a sunbeam and not find it painful… The worst of it all was that she had felt it once…but could feel it no more. Her mother was destroyed trying to enable her to be destroyed. The irony was amazing, but nevertheless potent. Since then, she had waged her war against all those who would crush life…life she could never have but always be jealous of. Life…the most precious treasure of all that she could never obtain, yet had to be defended. She had to guard it because that was the only thing left of her humanity. That was the only way she could live out her mother's name.

Worst of all…she couldn't drink from D. She might have been a monster, but she did have honor. She was at his mercy not twenty-four hours ago, and yet he spared her.

"…I never thought I'd actually say this…" Miyu spoke as reluctantly as possible. "…But small and inconsequential as these humans are…they are worth saving." She hesitated, and then bit back an inner reaction. She lowered her gaze to the ground and burned it there. "They possess the greatest treasure of all in their lives…and they deserve to use it… If I cease believing that, then I fully pass from life into monstrosity."

"Stuff and nonsense, Miyu." Genma reassured. "You've already 'ruined' several lives as well, haven't you? Didn't you think their meager existence was inconsequential then?"

_Perhaps I did…_ Miyu thought. _…And yet if any of them wanted my position, I would have done more than bit them if necessary. I would trade it for their tears and heartache._ These thoughts were foreign to Miyu. She had never let them enter her mind. But now that they did, she began to wonder how true they were. And if they were true, did that not already make her a loathsome and guilty creature? Hadn't she destroyed lived in the worst way?

"…It no longer matters." Miyu finally said. "And I will not join you."

Genma hesitated a moment. He stared at her long and hard. But in the end, he smiled simply, and shrugged. "Very well."

With that, Genma snapped his arm back and then flung it forward. In a flash, D's nodachi shot forward in a furious spiral straight for the vampire princess. Miyu looked up, and saw it coming. She tried extending her hands to stop it, but it was useless. Her power was gone. She was starving now, and couldn't last any longer without food. And so, she could only stare helplessly as the sword came for her…only glare as she felt all of her emotions run back…feel the things she had long since lost…remember her mother…remember the multitude of sins she had brought forth in all her days of hunting…

The sword reached her neck, still turning in the air, and instantly sliced through it. Miyu's head went flying from her shoulders, and clattered to the ground. A splurt of blood went up from Miyu's severed neck…and then collapsed to the ground along with the rest of the body. Genma watched to see his last opponent fall, but then calmly turned away from the area and began to walk away.

"Looks like D's blade did finish her off after all."


	8. The Colonel

**Chapter Eight**

_March 26, 2015_

* * *

D, feeling much worse than before, slowly cracked open his eyes. A sensation began to come over him. It was that of some animal, sniffing around him. He couldn't tell what it was initially, but from the looks of it, the size was reasonably large. Perhaps it was a stray dog or cat. His head throbbed and he felt horrible. He hesitated a moment, and then moaned inwardly. Then, D shot his arm up, seized the animal, yanked it down to his mouth and bit into its neck. The thing yelped only once before D broke its spine with his now-monstrous canines and began to drink from its open jugulars. As he felt blood begin to rush into him, his headache began to ease. His stiffness vanished. He felt a bit more fortified. That, however, was the extent of the feeling. Non-human blood gave neither ecstasy nor true relief to a vampire. Just sustenance when they couldn't bear it any longer. It was the equivalent to eating dry bread and water. Luckily, he had an alternate route of rejuvenating himself.

After his head was clear, D tossed the drained animal aside. He raised his head off the ground, and looked around the area. He saw that he was still at the lake, still in that same patch of wood. His memories came back to him, and he cursed himself. It was rare that he was caught off guard so badly. Each time was very costly, and he had barely escaped death. Such looked to be the case this time. He looked to where his hand had lay on the ground. Sure enough, a few large handfuls of soil had been dug out of it. He thought a moment.

"…Thank you."

"Heh…don't mention it. It's my body too, ya' know."

"Uh…who're you talking to?"

D turned his head to the source of that voice. What he saw was Washu, who seemed to be a bit haggard, but amazingly unhurt. In fact, she was using another device to vaporize the blood off her clothing. From the scent, D could tell that it wasn't her own. The hunter was genuinely amazed, and began to rise to his feet. However, he showed no surprise, and simply swept his ruined clothing around him.

"…I thought he killed you."

Washu rose an eyebrow at that, as if genuinely surprised that D would suggest such a thing. But then, she seemed to recall something. With a smile, she lowered her hand to her chest, and then drove it in. To D's surprise, it sank right in and went right through. She then turned to the side, and saw that her hand was now protruding from her back. But there was no hole or damage. She pulled her hand out a moment later, and took on one of her self-prideful tones.

"The genius of Chibi Washu strikes again!" She blared. "Didn't think I'd run around without any protection, did you? This is the latest and greatest in instantaneous transportation technology. I'm wearing a matter proof vest!"

D merely looked to the ground and began to look around for his nodachi next. What he saw was Genma's own blade in a bloody pile.

"Oh, by the way, I went ahead and pulled that out of you." Washu went on. "So make sure to thank me."

"Why?" D simply answered. "I'm not a full vampire. One piercing through the heart is enough to kill me."

Washu paused and looked a bit puzzled at that response. She scratched her head and got a thoughtful expression. "Um…so…why are you still alive?"

D paused for a moment after that. Should he go ahead and show it? It was his greatest secret. No one but he ever saw it, save for a few potential victims before he put them to sleep, or his prey before they were inhaled by it. If Genma hadn't betrayed him, he might have gone on and done it. As it was, he wasn't willing to betray anymore trust with his secrets. If word got out that the great hunter could be permanently killed by slicing off his hand and burning it, then it would mean too much to his reputation and be costly to his life.

"…Let's just say I have ways of regenerating." D responded. "Are we the only two left?"

"Heh-heh-heh…I wouldn't really be Lupin the Third if I could be done in that easily, could I?"

Now D was really surprised. He turned his head to the sound of the voice, and saw that Lupin was indeed still alive. He was now on his feet and looking like his old cocky self. He even had his gun out and struck a little pose with it, before replacing it back at his side. The dhampire immediately inquired.

"Did you have one of Washu's devices as well?"

"Not him." Washu replied with an amazed head shaking. "This one's reserved only for Chibi Washu."

Lupin merely waved his hand at the two. "Oh please. I used to run around with one of the best swordsmen in the world. And it was a rather good trick to be able to fake being stabbed. Threw off Pops more than once that way. Old scar neck ran right at me thinking he was going to run me through, so at the last minute I arched forward so he didn't see where his blade actually was going, then twisted just enough so he could miss my extra-thin skeletal frame and pierce the back of my jacket."

D considered this. Perhaps Lupin was a bit more talented than he gave him credit for.

At that, Lupin looked around and developed a rueful expression. "Ugh…looks like we're the only three left."

D turned his head as well. Inuyasha…was simply in a gruesome pile. There was no way he was still alive. A bit of regret went into D, but he turned his head again to the other one. A large splatter of blood was against a nearby tree, and just in front of it was Miyu's decapitated body. At the base of the tree was what was left of her head.

Washu groaned and shook her head. "Too bad about Miyu. She can't regenerate from that."

D, however, didn't answer. Instead, bent down to the ground and grabbed another handful of earth with his "special" hand. He raised up with it still there, allowing it to eat it. As he did, he felt his health returning. More of his tension vanished, and his unrest settled. He actually felt able to handle more dangerous foes. That done, he dashed over to the fallen Miyu, wondering if it was too late. Weaker vampires might have instantly died. If she was an undead, then she would have turned to dust and that would have been the end of it. But being a living vampire, maybe he could still do something. Soon, he was at her body, but he went on toward her head.

As he did, a wave of icy air blew over him. At once, a massive dark shadow erupted from the trees, and fell down in front of him. Lupin and Washu recoiled, but D merely stood up and still. The shadow gathered, and a white face began to appear on it. It was Larve, and now he stood over the body of his dead master. That was rather strange to D. Why was he that interested in her? Wasn't he free? What more, he was a bit annoyed. He defended her now, but where was he when she needed him? At any rate, its full aggression was turned to D now.

The dhampire merely frowned back at him. There was silence between the two. Finally, he spoke up. "I don't wish to hurt her."

Larve didn't move.

"If you would like your mistress to die, then by all means keep me from reaching her." D calmly went on. "But if you want her to live, I suggest you let me do something. Even if you could put her back together, you cannot give her what she so desperately needs right now."

The shinma hovered a moment longer. A rumbling came from within it, as if it was at a loss of what to do next. It hadn't been expecting this complication. Finally, however, it seemed to relent. Reluctantly, it moved to one side, exposing Miyu's body to D once more. Without hesitating, or thanking it, D moved forward and down to Miyu's severed head. Larve continued to watch as he kneeled and took up Miyu's head in one hand. With his other, he grabbed another handful of earth and devoured it. After that, he felt pretty close back to his normal self. That was good, considering what he was going to do…

"Aw no D…what're ya' thinking?"

"…She needs to be fed."

With that, D turned over to her body and went back to it. He used his other hand to adjust it so that the stump of a neck was nice and level. He then turned Miyu's head around and put it on the shoulders. After that, he held a moment, and looked at her. Nothing happened at first. The two severed parts lingered there like any normal dead body. The hunter feared it had been too long. Every moment the head had been severed from the body, the vampire had lost more power to rejoin the two. Old and powerful as Miyu was, she was already weakened significantly from all that had gone on. And so, he and Larve could only watch and hope.

But in the end, it happened. The sinews extended from her neck and rejoined her skull. The veins snaked out and melded with their partners, and tendrils of nerves came forth and fused her spine back together. They shifted, and slowly pulled the vertebrae back into alignment. The mesenteries began to slowly fill out, but they were moving more slowly now. The flesh attempted to fill in, but it grew only in spurts. The skin tried to grow back, but it only managed to barely stretch itself over the wound. Miyu stirred in his grasp, but only barely.

"Aw…come on D…you can't be serious!"

"…She's not my job yet."

"She will be one day."

"…Not today."

By many other standards, Miyu would still be dead. In fact, she had grown white as a ghost. The skin began to shrink over her bones. Edges of her flesh seemed to begin to rot, particularly around the nails and corners of her mouth. She seemed to be nearly wasted away. D took her up, partially rejoined as she was, and propped her in his arms rather like she was a baby. That done, he lowered his own wrist to her mouth, and instructed her. "Drink."

The vampire princess stirred again, and seemed to try to turn away from it. Perhaps, somewhere inside her, she refused to sacrifice her pride to allow a vampire hunter to refill her. But she had no choice. D wasn't going to let her feed on Washu or Lupin. No small animal would sate her appetite now. He was the only one who could resist her curse even if she tried to give it to him, and his blood alone could regenerate. So he thrust his wrist into her mouth and commanded her again. "Drink."

Pride might have held her back, but hunger would not. No matter how old or "civilized" the vampire, when they starve they become rabid, ravenous animals. She could not resist the smell of blood in D's veins. And so, her mouth weakly opened and clamped down on his wrist. D suppressed the pain that resulted, but held it there, as he felt a sucking force begin to pull in his arm. He never thought he'd be doing this, freely feeding a vampire. But he held and waited.

The effect began immediately. The flesh filled in around her neck. The skin closed up. Soon after, she began to drink more strongly. Her awareness returned as well, but she couldn't overcome the temptation to keep feeding. And so she did. The wear and tear around her fingers and lips filled back in. Her skin went from thin and gaunt to fleshy and strong. Her pale skin began to tone down to a more suitable shade, especially now that it was nightfall. Still she kept drinking in. But at last, as if with a terrific effort to restrain her own instincts, she raised her arms, placed them on D's wrist, and then tore herself away from feeding. That done, she scrambled out of D's grasp and tumbled to the ground. She then scurried away, wiping her still red lips.

Larve quickly went down to her side to look to her. Miyu turned and looked to him, and then gave him some sort of look of reassuring. As for D, he looked to his own wrist, saw the flesh close up on it, and then down to his nodachi. He took it up, wiped the blood away from it, and then replaced it in his sheath.

Miyu's look turned to anger. "Why did you do that?" She demanded.

"You're welcome." D simply answered, and then rose to his feet.

Miyu flustered a little, but then drew together her pride and then rose to her feet. Again, she was indebted to him. That drove her insane. She couldn't stand owing him something for what he had done, not to the hunter. Yet she owed him his life another time now.

Lupin blinked in astonishment. "Um…ok…I thought that you couldn't regenerate from a decapitation…"

"If something had been done to the head to keep it from rejoining, such as stuffing it with garlic or placing a host in it, possibly." D answered. "But so long as the head is intact enough to replace, that won't happen."

Lupin groaned and rolled his eyes. "Man, am I glad I don't have your job."

D looked around the newly assembled group. "…Well, at least four of us are still here. But I'm afraid even one as strong as Inuyasha can't recover from that."

However, in response to that, Washu merely raised up her own wrist, and pushed a button on it with a crafty little smile. As the others watched, they saw Inuyasha's bloody remains instantly vanish. The group was amazed at that. But not nearly so much as what happened next. Again, an opening in the sky seemed to appear, and again an object seemed to step out of reality. Or rather, in this case it hovered. This time, it was some sort of translucent sphere. D looked at it, and realized that it was actually energy, some sort of field in a small area. As it lowered, D also saw the source. What looked like two huge tree trunks with symbols on them were generating the field between the two of them. Some sort of tree or growth was blooming between the two trees, and resting in between them was none other than Inuyasha. He didn't have a scratch on him, and looked good as new.

Miyu joined the amazed crowd now. "How is that possible?"

"A little emergency function built into my teleporter." Washu calmly replied. "When it detects a dying form, it transports two of my buddies over here to create a healing environment. Even lost limbs can be regenerated there. It was no problem to get our fuzzy friend in."

"But if that's the case, then what the hell was that thing that got sliced up?" Lupin commented.

"Just a hastily whipped up clone." Washu calmly answered.

"A clone?" Lupin reacted. "Where did you get the DNA?"

"Oh, I've been taking DNA samples from you all in secret ways ever since I met you." She replied. "You are an interesting bunch, after all. This one didn't have any living brain. I just needed a replica of him, so that Genma would kill a fake one."

Miyu reacted to this. Moments later, a rage came over her. "Do you mean to tell me you _knew_ he was going to do this?"

Washu innocently shrugged. "I wouldn't be much of a super genius if I didn't. Besides, I have a big sister who can see the future."

D felt considerable irritation come into him at that. But that was nothing compared to Lupin and Miyu. He turned red as a beet, while a cold dark wind generated around her and her red eyes blazed in anger. Washu, in response, looked perfectly innocent, and even surprised at their rage.

"You retarded imbecile!" Miyu spat viciously.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us about Genma earlier then!" Lupin blasted.

"Hey, you're all still alive, aren't you?" She calmly answered, still unmiffed. "There wasn't much of a reason to say anything."

"Then why didn't you say anything about that Kohaku freak!"

"And why didn't you talk about the spray!"

Washu scowled. "Hey, I don't know everything. Just a few generalities. Plus it was kind of guess work." With that, Washu reached up into the sky, and pulled down another chart out of nowhere. It seemed to a normal projector screen that just popped out of reality and extended down to the ground. Once she did, she produced a baton from nowhere and pointed at it, revealing a bar graph. "My biological analysis of Genma revealed that he had a 87 percent chance of betraying us for money, a 12 percent chance of staying with us, and a 1 percent chance of being an intergalactic gelatinous blob in disguise. I just played to the likelihood."

That didn't satisfy the group. If anything, it annoyed D even more than before. "…You still could have warned us. We could have stopped Genma right there."

Washu merely snickered in reply. She crossed her arms craftily and held up her baton. "But if we did that…we wouldn't have given everyone at the House the impression that we were all dead and no longer a threat, would we?"

The three froze at that. Washu did have a point there. Painful as the experience was, D now realized that the advantage was in their court. Until now the enemy had been ready for them. The spray…the light…Kohaku… They had been tracking them world-wide. But that was over now. Now, they had no idea where they had teleported to, and soon Genma would arrive claiming he had killed them all. They were in luck for the moment.

Nevertheless, D had gone though a bit too much pain to be too happy about it.

"Um…why am I naked and sitting in this tree?" A gruff voice suddenly announced from the hovering force field.

* * *

_March 26, 2015 – Somewhere in the Pacific_

* * *

Kei wasn't sure exactly what had happened with Kohaku. It had been briefly what could be described as a grass cutter's nightmare. One moment she was trying to focus on him, subsiding her own mental pain, and the next she found herself being smothered with the thick smell of grass wrapped around her head and body. She couldn't remember if she had merely passed out, or if something in the grass had put her to sleep. Whatever happened, she felt overwhelmed, dizzy, and soon felt nothing. She vanished into the sea of blackness that she recognized all too well as unconsciousness.

But now that she was coming back, she felt like the gum on someone's shoe. Everything about her seemed slow and sluggish. She had a constant groggy, disconnected feeling. Some of it bordered on euphoria. She did feel a little light and silly as consciousness wavered back into her. She was so disconnected she couldn't immediately realize where she was or even if she was awake or dreaming. Everything was circling and spiraling around. Her brain refused to work right. She seemed to spend hours in that state, unable to see what was going on but aware of existence none the less. She couldn't move or do anything. However, at last, like a listless teenager forcing himself out of bed, she forced her eyes open and forced life into her limbs as she did.

Her eyes soon revealed what her dim touch senses did not. She wasn't lying in any bed on a weekend morning, so this wasn't a dream. She wasn't in a small room, so she wasn't back in prison. She wasn't lying in some dirty hovel, so the whole thing with Akira hadn't been a dream. And she wasn't mummified in grass, so she had to at least be free of that. She was on a cold, iron floor with grating. Her vision was blurry, and the world spiraled and spun this way and that. All of her senses were dimmed. But she could smell the familiar scent of seawater. She was somewhere near the ocean.

"So, awake at last?"

The voice was nearly an echo, disconnected as Kei was, but she still managed to turn and look up to the voice. When she did, she got a better view of the room. It was a large, metallic chamber. It reminded her of the old weapons testing facility she had broken into when she was a prisoner in Neo Tokyo all those years ago. Only this one seemed more rudimentary. Oh, it had all the trappings, of course. It had giant computers, lab benches, a lot of sophisticated equipment, some sort of strange apparati and the like. It also had a few people filling the traditional "lab scientist" rolls you expected to see in these places. People running around with clipboards and tools and white coats and glasses. However, this place still seemed more cobbled together. It appeared to have been thrown together in only a short period of time. What more, there was a lot more biology related things in this place. There were cages for animals, and a few monkeys and dogs in some, and a lot of equipment for DNA analysis such as Petri dishes and micropipets and the like.

There were also dark suits in here, much like the same ones as before. But mixed in with them were some genuine heavy troopers. They looked like marines, only they weren't that old. They seemed to be barely old enough to make the minimum age requirements, and were dressed in heavy armor bearing heavy weapons. Their faces were helmeted, so Kei saw none of how old they truly were. A few dark suits were at the head of the room, gathered around a chair that had its back to Kei. She focused on that at first, until she caught out of the corner of her eye who had truly spoken…

Despite being out of it, Kei was shocked to see what was going on. Two scientists were using some sort of welding torches and lasers on a man's arm. Or rather…on his arm _socket_. They looked like they were modifying it for something. The operation hadn't happened too long ago, from the freshness of the blood that had been sutured on it. After working on it a little, both scientists stopped, and went over to the side. Combining their strength, they managed to pull up onto the table with the arm socket a large piece of machinery that seemed to be a rather large gun. It had numerous attachments on it for one's back and hips as well as in the socket, and they brought it over and immediately began to hook it up. It was sickening to even watch, and Kei wondered why anyone would be so twisted as to do that.

Then, looking up to the source, she saw the source.

"Thorne."

The old military man managed a half smile…for some sort of grotesque operation was also modifying one of his eyes at the moment into God knew what. "How do I look?" He asked teasingly. "Better or worse since you last saw me? I have your vampire friend to thank for speeding up my receipt of payment for working for the House. If she hadn't rendered my hand useless, there was no telling how long it was going to take before I was augmented."

Kei merely frowned. She looked over herself, and saw that her clothes were still there. She didn't appear to be fettered in any way. She was merely laying on one side of the room. And so, giving a grunt and trying to push back her dizziness, she abruptly pushed herself up to her feet in one fluid movement. She was rewarded with a rush of blood to her head, making her dizzy and falter a bit. Her vision went black momentarily, but she still heard Thorne chuckling a little at her. However, after a moment, she cleared, and despite being groggy managed a frown, and began to step toward Thorne…

…Only to realize she couldn't move a step. In surprise, she looked down to her feet again, and realized not all of her clothes were still there. Her feet now wearing metal shoes, and she was magnetized to the ground.

"You didn't think we were going to leave you alone without restraining you, did you?" Thorne grinned, as the scientists kept connecting his appendage.

Kei frowned and looked up to him. Immediately, she changed tactics. She had taken enough of him. She needed to focus on his brain…on a small little part that would throw him into agony if only the slightest pressure was applied…that could cause a hemorrhage. However, she soon realized her handicap. She felt too groggy. Focusing on anything was impossible. It was like her mental power was short circuited before it could even begin to act.

This only made Thorne grin more. "Perhaps you're visualizing crushing my heart right now…" He vocalized. "Yet find yourself unable to focus too hard on it. Well, that's because you're now on the medication the United States gave its own psionic children. All of your ESP and telekinesis is effectively cut off."

Kei growled inwardly at this, and stopped focusing. The situation aggravated her. She wanted nothing more than to kill Thorne at the moment. What kind of freak did this to himself anyway? What was he doing to himself now? Was this what the House was all about?

Thorne winced a bit at his operation, then continued. "At any rate, now that you're awake, you can finally meet the Colonel."

Kei, despite her mental state, frowned and spat back. "I've already met him."

"I'm afraid that's where you're wrong, Kei."

The spy perked up her head in confusion at this. She heard a new voice now, from the chair in front of the room. But it wasn't the burly male voice she expected from the giant Colonel she once knew. It was the voice of a small child…and was laced with venom, heartlessness, and wickedness. Malice and cruelty flew through it, and there was no heart or mirth in that voice other than in enhancing its own welfare or making misery for others. At any rate, the agents backed off, and the chair turned around…shocking Kei at the sight.

It was a child.

No normal child, mind you. This one had the same wrinkled gray skin that the three children from the Akira project had, and the same white hair. One of his eyes was a burning red, the other an unnatural blue. And he had what looked like wires protruding from the back of his head and going into his neck. But other than that, he was a young child. He had a backwards baseball cap on, and wore clothing like his favorite baseball team. But his smile was heartless and wicked…and the eyes betrayed an intellect much higher than that of his peers. Kei realized what this was immediately. Only unlike Takashi, Kiyoko, or Masaru, there wasn't an ounce of kindness, compassion, or mercy in his eyes.

"You…"

"Yes me." The boy smiled in response. "You've seen my like before, haven't you?"

"You…you look just like…the kids from the Akira project…"

The boy gave a light-hearted laugh at this, normal to any boy that appeared his age…and yet cold and empty. "That's typical, Kei. You see, we were both part of the same arms race. Both of us were stepping stones onto the level of Akira. However, I was as far as Washington D.C. ever got. I have a few noted differences from the 'Japanese' model. Namely my cerebrospinal fluid is rerouted to prevent an excessive mental buildup. But like them, I am a sickly living corpse dependant on drugs to keep his brain from dying."

Kei blinked. She didn't say anything for a moment, and looked around from left to right. "This…this is a joke, right? You…you're the Colonel? But I thought-"

"You thought I would be your friend Colonel?" The boy suggested, still smiling. "Oh, we offered it to him, of course. I wanted his expertise with dealing with Akira. But he refused. I can't say I blame him, after all the man went through. There wasn't a price I could give him. However, I do have Akira now, so it doesn't really matter."

Kei still couldn't believe it. All this time, they had been going after a kid!

"But…you're just…a child!"

This only amused the boy even more. "That's what all my enemies think before I kill them, Kei. Some a lot more horribly than others. That's what the scientists thought over in Mesopotamia before I killed them, liberating myself to perform my own ends. That's what another Japanese agent, not unlike yourself, thought when he spared my life after ruining my plans at dominating all life. No, Miss Kei. These juvenile, yet withered, hands have been dipped in human blood and held the power of a god in them. But it was snatched away. Now I must rebuild anew. And this time, the power will pass directly on to me."

"You wanted Akira?" Kei asked, still in disbelief. "Why?"

The boy snorted. "Isn't it obvious?" He replied. "Certainly, you see what I am. You see the power that I have the potential to possess. Nevertheless, it's not enough. Not nearly enough to sate my desires. I want the power to regenerate from this wrinkled shell of a body. I want the power to lay waste the world's armies with a wave of my hand. I want the same power that half-shattered the moon not too long ago. And I'll have it."

Kei blinked. "How?" She asked. "People have to have a special type of brain to be able to rise to Akira's level, not to mention the support."

"Support I have." The boy answered. "As for the brain, I'll have that soon enough. Once I have the DNA, I'll be able to engage in a process to get the desired… 'hardware', if you will, into me. There may not be much of his body left, but there's enough to clone his own cerebrospinal fluid and mix his DNA into a basic cold-type virus. I'm just going to conduct a little gene therapy, although much more advanced than you'll find at the local hospital.

"However," He went on, leaning back in his chair a little, and then looking to either side of the room. "That's hardly any concern of yours right now. The only thing you're good for is seeing how to successfully integrate these new components into my own so that I can make use of them. So you're going to have to be with us for a little while."

Kei, at this, looked to either side. She saw that there were more dark suits now. Two of them were coming right at her. As they got closer, she became apprehensive. She looked to either of them and started to tense up. She put her hands up in a defensive position, but unable to move her feet she could only do so much. "What…what's going on?"

"Without your psionic powers, you can't do much to escape." The Colonel answered. "However, I know you have plenty of natural abilities to make you dangerous. I'm going to have to make sure you don't leave."

The two dark suits reached Kei. Both approached from either side, so that she couldn't focus on one or the other. One got into range, and suddenly seized one of her arms. She immediately wrenched it free, and tried to lash out with her other fist. But the other grabbed this one, and immediately yanked it back. She tried to hit this one with her other hand, but the first grabbed that arm as well. Both of them immediately wrenched her arms behind her back and pinned them against her. They grabbed her side and forced her to stand upright.

"What're you doing?" Kei demanded.

The Colonel didn't change. "I'm not going to put you in some cell you can inevitably escape from. Why bother, when all I need is your brain?"

At that, Kei noticed one of the scientists turned away from Thorne. He now turned to Kei instead, and began to walk toward her. She saw him, but didn't focus on him. Instead, she looked down to what was in his arms. A large tool was there, and on the end of it there was a small focused beam of light. It looked like some sort of laser, only controlled between two points. It was large enough to encompass something of relative size. Kei didn't know what it was for initially…but after a moment, she began to realize that it was the size and shape of a bone saw.

The woman went white.

"No…"

"You won't even bleed." The Colonel reassured with a wicked smile.

Kei was a strong woman. She wasn't one to beg for mercy. But still, it took her every fiber of her being to keep herself from crying out hysterically right now. She began to struggle fiercely against her captors. They retorted by grasping her pressure points and wrenching her into a halting spot. Besides, the most crucial thing of all, her legs, could not be moved. Struggle as she could, she couldn't change them at all. Kei's mind began to go wild as the man drew nearer. She struggled harder and harder, like a mad woman. But the suits knew how to deal with that kind of strength, and kept holding. They didn't cover up her mouth, but she didn't scream either. She grit her teeth and began to grow covered with sweat from the straining and fighting. But still she could do nothing as the man drew closer and closer, and finally was at her. Her eyes became wide and terror stricken as she saw him bend down. She saw him punch a button that made the laser glow brighter than before. Then…she saw it lower to the space above her knee.

She couldn't help it, and whispered:

"Oh…God no…please…"

The whispering was soon drowned out by screaming, and she continued to do so for the next thirty seconds. The Colonel watched on with a twisted smile, like this was some sort of kids' cartoon show. "You should be thankful." He said over the screaming. "I originally wanted to cut your arms off as well."

In the end, when it was done, the Colonel hesitated long enough for Kei's screaming to cease, and to hear her simply breathe hard and deep, struggling to contain the shock. Only then did he give his second order.

"Good. And now the eyes."

* * *

NOTE: Ew.

By the way, in case you're wondering where the Colonel is from, he's from Spriggen.


	9. Special Orders

**Chapter Nine**

_March 26, 2015 – Back on board Ryo-Ohki_

* * *

It took a few hours, but at last the Ryo-Ohki returned to pick up its passengers. The ship, despite all the damage it had to have taken, looked no worse for wear. Apparently, what it was made out of helped it to regenerate. In no time at all, the group reassembled on it, down from seven to five now, and took off once again. They headed on a course for the Pacific, but other than that had no idea where to go at the time.

"Do you think their ship has arrived yet?" Miyu asked.

"Probably not yet, even considering how long we've been out of it." Lupin responded. "Even I couldn't scurry away this quick in my line of work."

"We don't exactly know where they went, however." D responded. "So any estimate we make on if they have the sample yet is purely a guess." He turned to Washu after that. "Can you scan for Kei's mental signature?"

Washu, who was already tapping away at another one of those hovering keyboards, shook her head. "No can do. They must somehow be suppressing her."

Inuyasha scowled. "Then we're stuck, aren't we?"

"Not necessarily." Washu encouraged. "There is one thing I haven't tried yet. I haven't looked to see about any survivors yet on our little raid. Before, the guys poisoned themselves right after we beat them, but if any of the dark suits survived, we might be able to get something from one of them. I mean…you guys didn't kill them all, did you?"

"Hopefully not." Lupin answered with a gulp.

"Fine, get to work on it." D responded. With that, he turned away from the others and began to make his way out of the cockpit chamber.

"Where are you going?" Miyu asked.

"…I need to check on something else, and I need to do it alone." D simply answered. "Don't follow after me."

The group looked at him in a puzzled way at that, but D didn't bother arguing. Soon, he had moved out of the main room and left the others behind, without saying so much as one more word.

* * *

_It's time to resolve this._

D wasn't one to take orders, especially not after five hundred years of going his own way. Ever since Genma's betrayal, something else was on his mind. The assassin had no doubt planned to betray them since the start. But if that was the case, he began to wonder just how much this Gendo knew about it. He began to wonder more and more if something of the like wasn't in the envelope that he had been given. Perhaps it had some clue to all this. And even if it didn't, D was through running around in the dark. The enemy had known too much about him. He wanted some of his own answers.

Arriving at what he believed was a safe distance. D halted and turned his head behind him. His keen ears listened for even the slightest hint of eavesdropping. He heard none, and so he turned back. He yanked out the letter from his bullet-riddled coat, tore open the envelope, and then pulled out the message. He unfolded it and held it before him, and after a quick scan to see what its form was, he began to read.

* * *

If you're reading this, I can assume one of two things. I opt for the former, that you are at the end of your mission, but I clearly suppose the latter, that you decided not to wait and wanted to know what was so important. It doesn't matter, I suppose. You might as well learn this sooner than later.

* * *

D frowned slightly that the man had guessed his motives, but then kept reading.

You might as well know the truth now. Serious as we believed the Akira situation to be, we didn't believe it to be serious enough to merit sending in our own team against the United States. Though the power of Akira is lethal, we deduced the chances of any terrorist group managing to successfully utilize the DNA and find an adequate host for it were approximately one in 17 billion. It would be more likely that they would meet with half-success and would breed a creature that would destroy themselves as well as the remaining DNA. Hence, we would destroy two birds with one stone, the last traces of the Akira project and the rival militant House branch.

You were unnecessary. You and your team were just a front. Secret as you may have thought your assembly was, by now you've probably realized that you weren't nearly secret enough. The enemy has undoubtedly guessed your moves and may have even devised ways to kill members of your team, regardless of their aptitudes. Perhaps you would have been successful. Perhaps you would not have been. Either way, we really didn't care.

* * *

D felt his fist tighten at this. A rare emotion of anger began to fill him. That was it? This whole thing was a set up, and they were all risking their lives for nothing? Until now, D had never experienced being used before. But he did now, and it drove him mad inside. If ever he found this Gendo again, he would make sure he would regret ever having double-crossed them. But he kept reading regardless, for there was still a lot of text to go.

* * *

Right now, you're probably fuming. If you finished the mission, you might be wondering what all of this was for. If you haven't, congratulations. You just avoided more work. However, D, this team was not assembled without reason. Only in this case, the only person we truly want to hire is you.

* * *

D's inner emotions cooled a little at this, and his intrigue instead rose.

* * *

You are one of a group of the most skilled, extraordinary teams on the planet. You are also a member of one of the most dangerous, ruthless, and heartless teams on the planet. The people in your midst are not heroes. They're security risks. They're unstable killers. You alone have some system of honor and control. The rest of them are lawless criminals. Lupin has cost the world billions in defensive measures, property damage, stolen artifacts, and disrupting economies. Kei is an international terrorist who was caught trying to assassinate Japan's prime minister and has a murder rap as long as yours. Inuyasha is literally a demon of the ancient world who was renown for killing thousands in his time, and now has free access to an unprepared future that no longer even believes he exists. Washu has destroyed much of Japan and its countryside as well as endangered the temporal physics of our very universe more than once, as ridiculous as that sounds. Miyu, as you well know, has murdered thousands, destroyed families, and turned people into lifeless shells walking the earth. And Genma… Genma was notorious in his time for being a criminal, assassin, rapist, traitor, conspirator, thief, murderer, and every other vice we have a title for. We did not willingly free him from the prison he was in. We have some meddlesome researchers to thank for that. (By the way, Genma thanked them by breaking their necks with his bare hands.)

* * *

D stiffened at this. So, they knew at least something about Genma. He had known some of these facets. Others he had not. This whole time he had been wary that he had been in a den of thieves, but now this confirmed it beyond any doubt. He was in a bad situation after all it seemed. But he read on.

* * *

You alone are the only decent one among them, though you have broken quite a few laws in the course of your line of work. But you are the only trustworthy individual. That is why we are offering to double your fee in exchange for one additional task: kill the members of your group.

* * *

D froze on reading that. It took some time before he could go on.

* * *

You may be wondering how this can be accomplished. No doubt, you already know how to kill Miyu. As for Lupin, he is a mere man, provided you don't give him the chance to be underhanded. Washu, strange as she is, will bleed and die like any human. Her technology protects her, but she is never protected when she sleeps. We know from research.

Inuyasha may prove hard, but you need only extend the mission out until the 27th. That is the night of a new moon. Once that happens, he will temporarily revert into a human, and be easy to kill.

Kei's psychic power might be more than we anticipated, but no matter. Kei has an old brain injury from the Akira project. Unknown to her, we have injected a microscopic bomb into the blood vessels in her brain. All you need to do is say, "It is you who broke my Maisson plate" in her auditory range, and the bomb will explode and kill her in seconds.

We had considerable time wondering about how you could kill Genma. This is the plan. After the others are dead, make it appear that you and he are on the same side and that he was exempt. Lead him back to the address on the bottom of this note. The initial elevator there that you will encounter on entering is a special trap that will flood the chamber with molten iron. Even if Genma can regenerate himself quickly enough to avoid being consumed, he will be trapped the same way he was last time…incased in metal.

* * *

_Well, he sure thought this through…_ D considered inwardly. He really wanted them all dead. How nice to put that burden on him.

* * *

Right now, you may also be thinking of some sense of morality or ethics considering your group. You may be willing to have some sort of loyalty to them, though they would not necessarily have the same to you. Let me assure you that such loyalty is ill founded, if you indeed have such scruples. Consider how many they have killed. Consider how much misery they have brought. Consider how the world would be better without them. How many more will Miyu feed on? How many people could die in the wake of Kei's powers? And how much chaos will Genma bring to the world if he lives?

Of course, in case you haven't already noticed, the ball is already in your court. We cannot stop you if you choose to disobey. However, I suppose I will lose nothing by telling you that we are not expecting your group to return. If we even get the impression of that, we will attempt to destroy them ourselves. We may or may not succeed, I'll grant that. But there was never any plan to give them what we agreed on. Even Inuyasha is deceived into thinking we have any jewel shards for him. And if you lead them to our location we have designated for you, we will make any and all attempts to kill them. And if you are with them, then too bad for you.

* * *

_Thanks for the honesty._

* * *

So you have two choices. You can either profit or risk their fate. You could always send them alone into our grasp, but you'll not see one cent of the money we agreed on. Our ultimate priority is the death of your team. The Akira project is but one dangerous item. Your team is made up of six. The choice is up to you.

* * *

D crumpled up the note in his hand, not too happy that he had been used. After killing themselves to get rid of Akira, a project they didn't care that much about, they were just going to do away with them. In a way, D was glad he had read the note now. Now he could ignore the mission and get on to more serious things. Gendo was right, frankly. The group he was in was full of criminals, murderers, and crazies. D typically didn't like to be hired for non-vampires, but he had killed his fair share of other deadly beings in his trade. Following Gendo's directions, it would be hard but not impossible to kill the others, save maybe for Genma. The earlier plans weren't going to help anymore. He would have to find his own way to kill him. But he had been thinking about that already, seeing as that was currently their plans. But as far as ethics were concerned, Gendo thought too little of him. This group was fighting alongside him and had trust in him. He wasn't a backstabber or traitor. He never killed when he could avoid it. Gendo was right in the regard of calling him ethical in that sense among the rest of them. He was of such a type that he wouldn't so easily kill. However, even concerning that, it didn't solve the problem of what to do from there.

"So…will you?"

D turned the eyes in his sockets rapidly to one side, and perked up one ear. But other than that, he didn't move. He felt a cold feeling over one of his shoulders, and secretly hit himself inside for not having kept his senses aware enough to sense a vampire sneaking up on him. Silent and deadly as they were, he should have known.

"Will you?" Miyu insisted, a bit more urgent this time.

"…No." D responded at last. There had only been a slight question inside him to that effect, but he had never swayed in that direction. Bad as they were…he wasn't going to betray his own conscience even if they did.

The cold feeling vanished from over D's shoulder. In response, the hunter turned around, and soon saw the pale figure of Miyu in the darkness. He knew why she didn't press him. D wasn't the kind of man to lie. If he intended to kill someone, he didn't bother hesitating about it.

Miyu frowned, crossed her arms, and looked to the side. "So, what now?" She asked.

"I thought you would know." D simply answered. "You still have a stake in this. You sensed a Shinma."

Miyu frowned. "Hardly." She replied darkly. "It has been months since I killed the last of them. I sensed a dark spirit. Out of lack of meaning or purpose in my life I agreed to hunt it."

D didn't act surprised, although that answer had intrigued him. "Interesting."

Miyu frowned a bit at that. "Yes, it appears that I have become useless, while you still have a purpose." She spoke in a sour defeatist tone. "Now only I remain. Ironically, only I remain a Shinma on this world and only I remain to continue to bring death to it. My attempt to salvage what was left of my humanity is now gone, and now I lose more of it as I continue to feed."

Neither of them said anything after that for a few moments. But in the end, Miyu sighed and looked to D. "I reiterate. What now?"

D didn't answer right away. He looked to the ground as well and thought for a long time. Miyu patiently endured his silence, allowing him to think over things. In the end, however, he looked up and replied coldly. "…I'm going to finish the original mission."

Miyu looked to him at that. After seeing he was serious, she snorted. "Why?"

"I never quit a job I accept." D simply answered.

Miyu turned her full body to him with a frown. "That's not good enough."

"Nevertheless, that is my reason." D responded.

Miyu didn't change. "I think it's because of your chivalry. I think you want to save the 'damsel in distress'."

"That's the reason Lupin will stay." D replied.

Miyu paused at that, raising an eyebrow. "Oh? So you plan on telling the others? And you're also so bold as to think they'll hang around?"

"If I didn't think they had that in them, I might have followed Gendo's instructions." D replied.

The vampire hesitated again. "What about Washu?"

"She will stay for the children."

"And Inuyasha?"

"You may not think it, but the dog demon has more chivalry and morality than me. And revenge will make him stay if nothing else."

"And what of me?"

D hesitated for a moment. "…You will stay for the dark power."

Miyu snorted. "You think you know me so well?"

"You said you have nothing else."

Miyu was silent at that. She looked a bit to the ground, for she knew that D was right.

"Now, you have dark powers to destroy: Genma and Kohaku."

Miyu sighed and frowned. "Please. Kohaku isn't any more evil than you. I said I wanted revenge on him, nothing more."

D was interested in that. "So he's under control as well?"

"Seems their projects on controlling children aren't limited to mortal children." She replied. She kept her eyes to the ground, and after a moment sighed deeply. "I suppose that we're still in this for at least a little bit longer."

"Appears so." D calmly answered.

There was silence between the two. None of them knew how to end this exactly, or what to say next. So they would be going forward, even knowing that none of them would ever get their rewards or anything promised. But that wasn't all right now. D noticed something of Miyu. Something was unsettling her, or still dwelling on her mind.

Finally, she spoke, hesitantly. "I…have a…" She trailed off.

D didn't press it. He waited calmly for her to say something.

But in the end, she frowned and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Let's go back to the others."

* * *

"Oh, there you are. What kept you two?"

Neither D nor Miyu said anything in reply as they walked in. They didn't venture even a strange look as a reply, but simply rejoined the others already assembled. Inuyasha frowned a bit at this, and Lupin looked suspicious, but Washu was too engrossed in her own work to care that much.

"Find something?" D asked.

"Well, none of the suits survived." Washu answered. "Not to say you guys were that good, all the survivors just got killed one way or another. However, I think I have something even better. Remember our old friend Kohaku?"

Lupin moaned. "Yeah…I still see images of his ninja face dancing around my head…"

"Well, Ryo-Ohki gave him some things to remember us by." Washu answered. "And in the process, she managed to get more than a few drops of his blood. Now we can analyze his DNA and track him, even if he sheds just so much as one molecule trails. I've got the most sophisticated molecular detection apparati in the planet on Ryo-Ohki."

"So where is he?"

Washu typed a bit longer. "Based on the concentration, my guess is about three-hundred miles west off the coast of Mexico."

"Island?"

"Not unless a volcano erupted pure molten iron."

"Sounds like a good bet to me." Lupin announced.

"How soon can we be there?"

"One hour, thirty minutes."

"Let's get going then." D responded. "And let's be ready this time. We're ending this mission now. But before anything else happens, I have to tell you all something."


	10. Infiltration

**Chapter Ten**

_March 26, 2015 – Somewhere in the Atlantic_

* * *

Actually, the drugs had a good side effect.

Kei wasn't going into shock from the pain.

Not being satisfied with having crippled and blinded her, the soldiers had thrown Kei into a prison cell. At least, that was what she thought they had done. She couldn't really tell anymore. But she had managed to writhe around the dimensions of the room and feel them, and she heard no one else in there. She figured it had to be some sort of cell or shut up room. But other than that she could see nothing.

Kei now lay on her back and focused instead. Her head still was fuzzy, but she didn't care. She had to keep focusing. Already, her drowsy feeling was going away. The pain was getting a bit more intense. She knew as she kept waiting, her power would continue to come back. That also meant that they'd be coming to give her even more soon. Perhaps they would come before she was fully recovered. But still, she tried to make due with what she had. So long as she had time, she could do something. Plus, she happened to know something that the test subject perhaps didn't. Sometimes the drugs had a way of awakening even more psionic powers. She could only hope that was the case.

She had a feeling she'd only have one chance to escape when the guard arrived.

* * *

_March 26, 2010 – Ten minutes from the House HQ_

* * *

D had been right, it seemed.

The group had reacted exactly as they said he would, and they agreed to stay on for their own individual reasons. One way or another, they would be carrying this through. They were going for Akira.

They had all cleaned themselves up now. Their injuries had been healed as much as possible, their clothing had been repaired, and their weapons were cleaned and reloaded. Everything was getting ready, and the five members were now assembled on the bridge.

"I'll get Kei-ty Pie out of there." Lupin volunteered brightly.

"Big surprise…" Inuyasha grumbled with arms crossed. "You better let me handle Kohaku."

"Even after what happened last time?" Miyu inquired.

Inuyasha scowled. "I was hurt last time, ok? But now, with Tetsaiga, I'm the best chance of taking him out."

Washu turned to Inuyasha at that. "Don't take him out, dog boy. It's not his fault."

"I'll do what I have to do." The dog demon replied darkly.

"Then I'm going with you." Washu answered.

"No, you'll be getting your children out." D responded. "Assuming they haven't already been conditioned to the point of being too late."

"Genma is mine." Miyu hissed.

"Then I suppose I get everyone else." D simply answered. "And destroy Akira."

Washu brightened up at this. "Now, I'm going to give you some little presents."

After that, Washu typed a few more keys. At that, another hole opened in mid-air, and a small palm-held device came out. Washu took it, and immediately presented it to Miyu. The vampress hesitated, but then reached out and took it and looked to it. "I don't need any of your devices, but what is this?"

"Something you'll like." She responded. "It produces a pure blackbody that will absorb all light photons within a hundred meter range. Simulated night, in other words. That means you'll be at full strength, and you'll be able to get the help of your shadowy buddy."

Miyu looked down to it for a moment, and was silent. Then, in the end, she managed to nod. "…Thank you."

Everyone seemed a bit surprised at that, and gave Miyu a strange look. She actually complimented someone? At any rate, her cold stare soon stopped their inquiries, and they went back to business. Washu typed again at her console, and another device appeared in mid-air. This one was only pill sized, and after taking it off she handed it to D.

"Just a small location device. Using that device, you can pinpoint a crucial location in the facility, and Ryo-Ohki will respond by annihilating it."

D said nothing, but gave a gesture of acknowledgement.

Washu typed a bit more, and another device appeared in mid-air. Washu took that and kept it this time. "This is for me. It emits a special light flash that will target memory functions and erase years from the minds of people. I'm hoping to use it on the victims there."

"Fine." D replied. "Now let's worry about getting there."

"It's easy." Washu replied. "Ryo-Ohki's already dropped speed, engaged cloaking and stealth, and is moving in along with the wind to match the water. They won't know what hit them on breaking in."

"Oh, now hang on just a moment." Lupin interjected with a stopping motion. "Are you saying we have all this stealth technology, all this nifty stuff that me and my boys would have killed for, and we're just going to try and storm the place like the FBI at Waco?"

"You have any better ideas?" Inuyasha asked.

"We all know how your last idea worked…" Miyu replied with a rolling of eyes.

"Hey!" Lupin innocently replied. "Mistakes happen. But this one will get us in perfect…"

* * *

"Are you sure they are all dead?" The Colonel addressed in a cynical tone.

"All dead." Genma replied with a smile. "It wasn't hard at all. Killing a few of your men only further engrained them in my trust."

The Colonel snorted in a half-chuckle at that. However, he also wasn't too easy about this. He turned his head to one side and looked to his "other" associate. Kohaku was standing near one wall. His uniform was torn, blood was oozing through various wounds, and he looked like he was only standing badly. His best resource, the hardest acquired item, had been ruined this badly. It had to have been them.

"Then how do you explain what happened to my soldier?"

Genma merely shrugged. "Not my fault. I already told you he went off to get that ship of theirs before we teleported. He must have been torn up by that."

"Then why didn't you destroy the ship as well?" The Colonel inquired.

"What does it matter?" Genma simply answered. "Without its owner, it's useless. They can't find their way here anyway. So I'd like to stop beating around the bush and get my fee."

"In good time." The Colonel responded with a smile. After that, he freely rose from his chair, strolled past the much larger and stronger looking man, and then began to walk toward the end of the room toward the next. "First, I want to see how the Akira formula works. It wouldn't make much sense to reward you anything if you killed them for nothing, would it? Besides, after I have it injected, it won't matter whether or not you failed."

Genma didn't look too pleased with this response. However, he controlled himself for the moment. "Fine. But after you have the formula, you better give me my money." He replied. "Pump yourself with as much as you want, but you can't keep me from collecting from you."

The Colonel froze at that. He turned his head slightly behind him and gave a smile. "Are you threatening me, Genma?" He asked calmly. "Much as you can regenerate, would you like to see how bad I can make you feel before you start regenerating?"

Genma was silent for a moment. "…How soon until the formula is ready?"

"About fifteen more minutes." The Colonel answered, getting calmer again.

"That soon?"

"We've been waiting on this for a while."

However, just as this was getting underway, a new set of rushing footsteps was heard. Both the Colonel and Genma turned to the source. Another dark suit was running in at the time, having an urgent appearance. Once he reached the room, he quickly stood up straight and addressed the group.

"Sorry to tell you this sir, but we have some bad news." He responded. "Their ship materialized over us a few minutes ago."

"Shoot it down." The Colonel coldly responded.

"Too late." The man responded. "Its single passenger disembarked, and then it left again. We've already surrounded the man, and he has surrendered."

"Who is it?" Genma immediately asked, genuinely surprised that any had survived.

"The hunter, D."

The Colonel managed a smile, and turned to Genma. He looked at the immortal's shocked face, and then grinned. "Seems you weren't as thorough as you thought you were."

"I impaled the dhampire through the heart." Genma darkly answered.

"No matter." The Colonel calmly answered. "Bring him here."

The dark suit looked puzzled at this. "Sir?"

"You heard me." The Colonel simply answered. "If you try to kill him, you'll be the only one who ends up dead. Bring him to me. Then I'll show you what true pain is."

This last part the Colonel spoke with a wicked smile. Even Genma was unnerved a little by it.

* * *

Kei finally felt a grasp on her power. And just in time.

The woman heard a clicking, like a door opening. She turned her head to it, and then immediately prepared herself. A moment later, she heard the door open. Two footsteps moved in afterward. "Time for your medication." A voice spoke with no mirth.

The woman didn't react. Instead, she desperately strained her thoughts to be able to think about this man. She struggled to read his mind as best she could. But at first, all she received was dull images. She struggled harder…

The man took a step forward. Moments later, he felt that her presence was beginning to come down over her. Another few moments passed, and then he felt something was coming close. She knew what was coming now. Struggling again, she tried again to focus on the man. This was her last chance. She had to awaken her powers. Something…anything…

Finally, she began to see something. A faint haze began to gather in front of her dark world. As it did…she began to hear things…become aware of objects… A syringe device right before her, and something at the side.

She had no time to waste. Suddenly, the woman sprung to life. Abruptly, she shot out a hand and swung it in a wide arc. Luckily, the palm connected with the gun, and the shock knocked it out of the man's hand. At least, that's what she thought because she heard it smack against a wall. Following that, she shot her hand forward, arching herself up at the same time, and then fumbled around the man's hip. Fortunately, her hand brushed against metal. The man, at this point, reacted. He turned his hand down and began to grab for her wrist. But just as he grabbed hers, she managed to grab the metal. She pulled back as he pulled her out, fumbled and pulled back the hammer, and then pulled the trigger blindly in front of her.

Moments later, a gunshot went off. Kei halted and prayed for a moment, hoping she had hit pay dirt. But after a second went by, she began to sense the haze in front of her fade. The life force was gone. She had hit right. Somehow, she had killed in one shot. After a moment or so, she knew she couldn't rejoice over that. She had escaped death once, but there wasn't a silencer on the gun. More would come soon. She had to get out.

Fumbling forward, Kei flipped her legless body around and then felt forward. At first, all she felt was the now dead body. She pushed against it, and struggled to get it out of the way. Seeing that was useless, she sighed and instead began to crawl over it. She must have been an odd sight, no legs and only one free hand struggling to drag itself over another corpse. It was a good thing that she was focusing so much on the danger. Otherwise she might have been a bit too disgusted at the thought. Soon, she had made her way over the man. After that, she was on smooth floor again. It was much easier to drag her body this time. She managed to get through the doorway, and then was into the hall. She had no idea what was the better way to go, so she turned her body to the left and began to drag herself that way.

However, at that moment, she heard incoming footsteps. Immediately, she ceased dragging herself, raised her firearm, and aimed forward. "Freeze!" She yelled out.

Footsteps halted…but then walked forward tentatively a bit more. To Kei's disgust, she realized that the man before her hadn't even been in her hallway yet. If she meant to scare him, then she had failed. Yet after the second set of footsteps, the owner more calmly stepped forward and out into the hall.

"I said freeze!" Kei shouted forward.

What she got in response was a chuckle. "Yeah right. Can't hit what you can't see."

Kei hesitated a moment at that. She struggled to hear the man, see where he was, make the next move. However, as she listened, she realized it was useless to try and hear anything. The noise was too great from her own panting and breathing. And so, she had to try another tactic…

As she did, the man, making sure to stay well to the side of Kei's firing range, slowly began to reach for his own sidearm. He moved slowly, making sure not to make any noise. And as he did, he saw that Kei indeed didn't react. Finally, after a moment, he managed to brush back his jacket and expose his gun. Still Kei didn't move. The man began to reach for the weapon next…

And abruptly stopped and screamed, as a bullet tore through his hand. He gasped in agony, and then recoiled. He looked up to Kei, and now saw that the woman aimed right at him, and that her vision was looking right into his eyes with her own gouged out sockets.

"I can see you." She responded, and was telling the truth. For now, her powers had returned enough for her to see a vaguely humanoid shape in front of her. They were concentrated mostly in the brain areas and areas of high neuronal activity, but she could see. And she could see his thoughts…vague shapes of the weapon at his hip. They were growing clearer all the time, for her power was returning.

At once, the image turned his other hand to the gun. But it was too late. Kei could see the gun in her own hand as well as the man now, and aimed her next shot straight and true for the head. After a moment, the body shot back…and then vanished as the last image had vanished. The fight was over, and Kei was still in the clear.

Kei breathed hard for a few moments, and got her breath. She lay her head against the ground and relaxed. Well, her psionic powers were returning. But now, she had a new dilemma. Until now, she had always been restraining her use of her powers. But now it appeared she had no choice. If she was going to get out of here, she had to use them all and use them extensively. There was no telling what the strain on her brain would do, or if she would end up as the other psychic she had met. However, she had to try. She had to get herself out now, especially if the others were gone. She had to move.

Kei decided to test herself next. Quickly, she lowered the gun and tucked it into her pants. After that, she looked ahead of her, to the dead body. She concentrated a moment, feeling out with invisible hands as she did so. It strained her brain a little, but she knew her head would hurt a lot more before she was done. After a short time, however, her mental fingers clasped a gun. She extended a hand out to it, and concentrated a bit harder. Moments later, she heard a sliding of metal across the floor, and then a feeling of steel in her hand. The image of a gun appeared in her mind again a moment later, and she sighed in relief. Looked like her powers were about to normal now. Good…because she was about to stretch them further.

Kei reached down to her shirt, pulled out a piece of it, and then tore off a strip of cloth. She brought it up to her eyes and tied it around the bloody sockets. That done, she looked to her own body. She sighed a bit after doing so. It had been a while since she had done this, and she had a lot more power then. But she had no choice now. Dragging herself along on the ground made her too easy of a target. She focused harder on herself, and struggled. Her brain began to hurt even before the action was carried out, but she kept pressing and bore with the pain. Finally, she began to react. Her body grew weightless…and she felt it begin to slowly lift up off the ground. The contact between her and the ground continued to fade, and like a balloon she felt herself begin to rise off the ground. Once she felt herself rise enough, she focused a bit more to swivel herself around, to what she thought was her regular height. That done, and her headache already mounting, she began to move herself down the hall.

_Alright…let's see how long I can stay alive._

* * *

Thorne grinned his cybernetic face. "So…how do you like my new look?"

D didn't answer the man who disgusted him. As far as he was concerned, after seeing what he had done to himself, he was no better than one of the humans he met who willingly became a vampire. But that wasn't his concern. His concern was to drop another speck of dust from his coat and drop it on the floor. That made three that he had scattered thus far. The only thing left was the one final one in his pocket, and he held onto that one a bit longer. He only hoped he had attracted all the guards. He certainly had a lot of dark suits, armed personnel, and heavy-armed troops around him now. The total numbered about forty. They were even quite a bit for him to take on. However, he was getting a good look at the ship.

This place seemed to be some sort of oil platform, though. He had gained that much from the look over. It was still hard to find it. It was lower to the ocean and didn't stand out. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack if you didn't know where. Yet it had a good number of layers beneath it. D had already counted three. The place was extensive enough. However, he hadn't seen anything yet desirable for the Ryo-Ohki. He held his patience.

Thorne had changed. He now had one of those heavy guns attached to his arm, only it appeared to have an interchangeable function on it for something bigger. His body was covered with some sort of armor to make it more formidable, and as for his eyes he seemed to have one of them replaced as well. He had turned himself into quite the machine-man. Pity for him D could kill him with one swing if he wasn't trying to hold off on ending his life. In the end, however, he had to just wait a bit longer.

At last, they entered into a new location. This one was bigger than before, and was full of computers and lab equipment. It indicated that there was something going on here at one point, but nothing much now. However, D mostly focused on the new people who were here. There were a few more guards here, increasing the irritation factor for D. There was also Kohaku. He wasn't in a violent mode, but seemed to be self-treating his own wounds in one corner. Before him, however, were his targets. On one side was Genma, and on the other side…was someone he didn't expect.

"Well, welcome hunter." The small, withered child spoke up with a cruel smile. "Before I have to deal with any of your inane questions, I might as well tell you. I'm the Colonel." He smiled in response to that as D continued to be led forward. "Surprised?"

D showed nothing as he came to a halt before the two. The guards fanned out in front of him and all trained their guns on him. "…No." D simply answered. "Just intrigued at the irony."

The Colonel smiled a bit in response. "Nicely said. I may kill you a bit quicker for that."

"Mind telling me how you survived?" Genma addressed, his tone a bit irritated, but other than that quite normal and even his mocking cheerfulness.

"I do, actually." D calmly answered.

Genma snorted. "We'll see if you're so tough in a second…"

"Curb your attitude, Genma." The Colonel answered. "I want to know something from him first. Namely, where on him he's planning to signal his little ship to annihilate this place."

D rose an eyebrow. "Hmm…very perceptive." He admitted.

The Colonel, in turn, also looked surprised. "Oh? You freely admit it?" He answered. After that, he hesitated for a few moments, and then frowned. His look turned to anger. "Well, there's only two reasons people do that. One is that they are stupid. The other is that they have another plan in mind. Would you like to tell me what?"

D stayed dark and cold.

"…No, actually."

The Colonel grinned wickedly in response.

A moment later, D felt his left arm suddenly yanked upward violently. He turned to it in surprise, but was powerless to control it. Instead, he watched as it was bent backwards, snapping the elbow. After that, it was twirled forward, twisting his arm into a knot. The bones snapped, and the shards began to pierce his muscles and tear through his skin. Blood soon began to soak through his new clothing. Immediately, D's forehead burst out into cold sweat, and the dhampire grunted in pain. He didn't do anything more, managing to hold back his agony, but he still felt horrible pain. He bit down harder and maintained his composure, somehow.

"How about now?" The Colonel spoke with a grin.

D grit his teeth and held on. He struggled a bit longer. But in the end, he bowed his head a little, and managed to speak. "Alright." He managed to answer with calmness. The pain having peaked, he now let his arm untwist itself, and the bones beginning to put themselves back together. "Here's my other plan." He paused a bit longer after that, and then turned his head to Genma, and gave a short nod.

Genma looked surprised. "What?"

But in response, D reached for the handle of his nodachi. He had half pulled it out when the Colonel frowned. Immediately, he felt the bones in that hand twist and snap, and with a grunt he was forced to release his weapon. D grit his teeth again, and let the sword slip from his grasp. That done, and with the guns pointed closer at D, the Colonel turned his gaze to Genma. However, his look was not pleased.

"What was the meaning of that?" He accused.

"The meaning of what?" Genma crossly replied.

"You know what." He hissed. "He nodded to you."

"So what?" Genma calmly replied. "It meant nothing."

"You know, I'm not so certain anymore." The Colonel darkly answered, turning his full body to the immortal. "First you introduce this whole element of joining us while working as a double agent for the UN. Then you fail to succeed in your mission of killing the whole group. And now, there is this little nod."

"Your point?" Genma darkly answered, crossing his arms.

The Colonel inhaled stiffly, getting more irritable. "The point, assassin…" He snarled. "Is that I think you might be a bit more than a double agent. I'm thinking you thought the reward I could give you would go along well with what the UN was offering. You thought you were going to work both sides and come out twice the richer."

Genma regarded him darkly. "You think you can just accuse me like this, or that your little threats can intimidate me, boy?"

The Colonel cracked a grin. "I wonder how much you'll talk when I do to you what I did to your partner, ex or otherwise."

Before this could escalate, however, D acted. He only needed them to bicker long enough for his bones to regenerate. While his hand was still in a few pieces, everything else was ready. Abruptly, D dipped into his pocket, yanked out another grain of material, and threw it down onto the ground.

"Now." He uttered.

The Colonel and Genma noticed this, but it was too late. As they turned to him, a new opening appeared in mid-air. After a moment longer, a white-haired form leapt out of it, clad in a fire-red kimono. The men were stunned, shocked at the sudden appearance. But in a moment, the man was out, brandishing a huge sword shaped like a gigantic monster's fang.

The dog demon was already prepared on exiting. His blade was already over his shoulder, and as he aimed for the enemy he swung his blade forward and screamed: "Wind Scar!"

Moments later, blood flew everywhere as a massive cutting beam of power ripped through the area. Smoke, light, and carnage flew into the air everywhere as Inuyasha unleashed his attack. People went flying everywhere, and even Genma and the Colonel had to cover their eyes and back up. It took the latter a few seconds to generate a mental shield around him to guard him from the power, and get him to open his eyes again and look forward. But even then, he could see nothing through the chaos and destruction. He only had to look on and see nothing for a few moments, until the effect of the attack died down.

At last, it did, and the horrible results were revealed. Three large rifts were sliced into the ground in the direction of the soldiers. Those who were in its path were now in pieces. There was nothing left. A few on the outskirts and in between, farther away, had been spared. The rest were gone. Now, there were only about fifteen remaining, most of them heavy armored. Thorne had survived, as had Kohaku, who was on the other side of the room. But Genma was gone…as was D and Inuyasha. The room was full of crumpled bodies. The people were only slowly picking themselves up.

The Colonel looked around at the situation, and frowned. "Thorne?" He called out.

The cybernetic man, still struggling to get up, looked to him.

"Make yourself useful." He responded. "Go out and kill them. Kohaku, go with them. Kill them this time."


	11. Fate of Akira

**Chapter Eleven**

_March 26, 2015 – Somewhere in the Atlantic_

* * *

"Well, looks like the party started."

Washu remarked this as she finished dusting herself off. She had just popped in to the facility, along with everyone else. One mass teleportation had happened via the crystals that D had scattered. Just as she expected, she was now on the holding level. She gave the area a look around, and saw that there wasn't any opposition here either. All looked pretty well.

However, she wasn't content with staying there. She had to get out immediately, and find Inuyasha. She was sure he'd look for Kohaku, and if the spirit was going to have any chance of survival she would have to get to him before he did.

Soon, the scientist disregarded the hallway for now, and instead headed straight for the nearest stairwell.

* * *

Lupin, his old luger out, and his smug look on his face, marveled at his handiwork as he walked down the metal halls. It had been perfect. They had busted right in, and while all the guards were stuck running around after D and Inuyasha, he and the others were clear to run around and do whatever mischief they had in mind. It was the secret to his success. The stronger the enemy built up the defense, the less inclined you were to attack them head on. Rather, it was better to sidestep everything and then pop in unawares. Now, all he had to do was find Kei and move out.

The thief calmly turned a corner down the hall and got ready to stroll down this one as easily. However, shortly after turning, he froze. To his surprise, he saw a team of five heavy-armored guards moving in to that location. However, on seeing him, they too froze, and for a moment the two parties stared at each other. As Lupin stared, however, he began to sweat and tremble all over. He formed a sheepish grin, and waved friendly-like at them.

"Uh…your shoes are untied?"

Lupin quickly ducked back behind the wall, before gigantic bullets began to tear through it. The thief gulped, and quickly began to slide away from the edge, because their bullets tore through the metal walls without any trouble. After a few moments, however, the firing stopped, and Lupin realized that was his cue to shoot back. However, he wasn't sure exactly what he could do with his little pistol. They were too heavily armed. With a sigh, he turned the corner anyway, and fired off a few ineffectual shots aiming for the vulnerable spots of the armor. Hitting nothing, he quickly ducked back and dodged another horrendous volley.

Licking his lips nervously, Lupin again waited, then turned around and fired off another few shots. This time, he heard a cry out in pain, and he realized he had landed a real shot. However, that was small comfort as he turned back into his safe zone. He had used all but one bullet with that last run, and he only had one extra set of ammunition. He also noticed that more and more of his shelter was being torn apart by the heavy armored men every time…

Abruptly, Lupin stopped thinking about both those problems as a searing, red hot beam shot out right in between his legs, precariously close to his family jewels. The thief nearly jumped out of his boots, and looked down to see the laser shoot from behind the wall between his legs. But a moment later, it cut off, and a gruff voice instead sounded out.

"That was a warning shot, you little weasel. I can see your body perfectly from behind that wall with my new eye. So unless you want me to perform some laser corrective surgery, I say you get out right now."

Lupin blinked in surprise. However, he recognized the voice. It was Thorne. He must have joined them during the interim. And evidently, he had some nifty new gadgets as well. This was a new predicament.

_Great. Now what am I gonna do?_

* * *

Inuyasha took a few more steps, then sniffed the air. No, nothing yet. He stepped a bit further.

No humans were around to stop him now. No other things to get in the way. He looked to the blade balanced over his shoulder. Tetsaiga was still in its fang form. The enemy was close. He continued to move forward, and he continued to look from side to side and listen for any movement. The chamber stayed empty and silent. Nothing came out.

As Inuyasha moved on, he didn't notice that the air suddenly rippled behind him, and then bulged and twisted. Within an instant, Kohaku suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Moments later, the spirit dragon shot forward, extending his hands and nails out before him. Inuyasha, however, managed to catch the coming moments before it landed. Quickly, he twisted to one side, but was still a little late. Kohaku still tore through his kimono and into his side.

The dog demon reared back his head and cried out a little, as Kohaku shot by. The moment the spirit was past, he turned around and faced his opponent again. Inuyasha bled a little, however he managed to shake off the damage, and look up and glare at his enemy.

"Alright, a**hole. Try that again."

Kohaku glared at him with his empty eyes for a moment. Then, in a flash, he suddenly brought up a palm to his mouth and blew against it. Immediately, an expanding spiral of pink petals erupted from his mouth and spun right toward the dog demon. Inuyasha reacted, but quickly brought his sword in front of him to guard against an incoming blow.

There was none, however. The petals continued to fan out and cover his field of vision. After that, they all vanished into nothingness. Inuyasha soon perceived that they weren't the only thing that disappeared. The spirit dragon had as well. Again, he had vanished into thin air.

Inuyasha held a moment, and brought his sword in front of him. No doubt, he expected the enemy to attack again. But he wasn't about to let it. He closed his eyes partially in response to this. But not totally. No, he didn't need to do that anymore. He used to have to do that to focus on the Wind Scar, but he could see beyond that now without closing his eyes. And such was the same for this. He needed to only focus, and make sure he reacted at just the right moment…

Abruptly, he sensed the movement come forward. Quickly, Inuyasha dove to one side, and then swung Tetsaiga in the direction where he was. Moments later, blood came out of thin air and painted his monster fang. Seconds later, Kohaku came out of thin air as well, a new gash across his side, and he tumbled out of the sky and fell to the ground. He managed to right himself before landing, however, and touched down on his feet. Once down, he whirled around and glared at Inuyasha.

The dog demon turned and focused on him in reply. "Ready for more?" He grinned.

* * *

Genma kept his pistol out and kept his sword at the ready. Thanks to D, another stupid vigilante, his plans were ruined for another generation. Now he had to rebuild for another era. It irritated him to think of it. _Oh well…at least I am still alive and immortal. I'll not be trapped the same way again._

The immortal rounded a corner, and saw that there was another man just down the hall. He turned and recognized Genma, but it was too late for him. The assassin marked him immediately, and then quickly moved forward. After crossing that hallway, he turned around the next corner and began to move on. There was nothing else here, and so he quickly made his way down that one. There was still one chance. If he could sink this rig, he could at least get the money for that…

Abruptly, the hallway went totally dark. The assassin froze. He looked up and to either side, but saw that it was dark in either way. He figured that the power was cut at first. However, he realized that couldn't be the case. There was somehow still some eerie, dim light filling the hallway. It wasn't even dim light, but more like…light darkness, or something. At any rate, he could still somehow see, although pitch blackness was in either direction. The air went silent as he looked on. A chill went on it next, and everything became silent and still as a tomb. Despite his body, he began to grow cold around. The hairs on his skin began to prickle. He felt death around him, despite having surrounded himself with it for so long.

But on noticing this, Genma frowned and relaxed.

"…I should have known if D survived, _you_ would have."

There was no initial response. The only answer was that the darkness parted in one area. And as it did, a body formed into it, that of a little girl wearing a white kimono. Behind her, the darkness gathered, forming a large and monstrous wraith. The girl looked vicious and angry. Her eyes burned red and fierce.

"You dared to betray a vampire."

Genma merely snorted, and turned to face her. She glared back darkly.

"You nearly made me trust people again, and then you spat in my face." The girl hissed. "You think you could just do that to me and get away with it? You think I was so cold hearted?"

Genma chuckled. "Don't be so melodramatic. You? Some little monster girl really cares about such small things? What do you care about trust or love? What room do you have for it in your wretched existence called a life?"

Miyu frowned more darkly. "Larve…shut him up in the worst way."

Genma turned his attention now to the dark shadow. Immediately, the thing gave a monstrous snarl, and then lunged over Miyu and straight for the immortal. Genma responded by raising his firearm and shooting at him, but his bullets ineffectively went through him. Moments later, the shadow engulfed him. A swirl of blackness consumed his body, and his throat was abruptly torn asunder. That wasn't enough. The thing used a white claw hand to rip his face off, and after that was done smashed six of his teeth in to make a hole to rip his tongue out. In short, the creature mutilated any way for him to talk, swirling over him with dark, lethal energy. At last, the masked being shot back and glared at is handiwork, talons out and ready to do more damage. Miyu also gazed on him.

Genma stood there a moment, a skinless bleeding ruin of a creature. But then, the blood was drawn back into the wounds. The skin grew and covered the lacerations. New teeth came out of the jaw and the tongue grew thick again in his mouth. Soon, the dark assassin was back to normal and looking totally unhurt.

"Pity you are only some bastardization of the state of immortality." Genma grinned. "I on the other hand am perfection. Now…let's see how fast you regenerate from _this_."

* * *

D hid in the shadows for a moment longer, making sure all his bones were back in place. But he had fully regenerated by now, and the others had left. Now, he was alone to move onward. Quickly, he drew out his nodachi and then stepped back out of the darkness. That done, he moved back around the corner, moving slowly back into the previous chamber. Now, it was time to put an end to Akira.

The hunter moved back into the chamber, and then halted momentarily. Sure enough, most of the guards were gone. But there was still one person left. The Colonel still stood on the other side of the chamber, hands calmly folded behind him and giving D that mirthless smile.

"Hi." He spoke with childlike cheeriness. "Expecting me here waiting for you?"

D didn't respond. His nodachi was still out, and he brandished it in front of him. "...By authority of the United Nations, I place you under arrest for international crimes. Stand aside."

The boy looked stunned at that response for a moment. But then, he merely smiled and gave a joyless little laugh. "Oh man…out of all the idiotic, meaningless responses I've heard…that has to be the worst. Maybe if you had asked for a three second grace period I might have given you that. Now I guess I'll just rip you into pieces."

D didn't answer. Instead, he suddenly lunged forward. Utilizing his superior speed and strength, he strode three steps before jumping up and soaring in the air. With the power of his leap, he flew over all the computers and machinery and was soon headed straight for the Colonel. His nodachi was out, and aimed right for his heart. He was nearly there…and came within two inches of the chest.

After a moment, the sword froze, as did the rest of D's body. He became as stone, and strained and grunted, but couldn't move. As for the Colonel, he never changed. He smiled without moving a muscle, arms still crossed behind his back. After a moment, however, he spoke.

"I hope you can do a bit better than that. Now, I could just break a few bones right now, but I'd rather just kill your bloodsucking ass rather slowly."

With that, the Colonel flung D back across the room, back toward one of the metal walls, with hurricane force. His body connected so hard that an impression was dented into the metal. Despite the Colonel's terms, he felt several bones break including ones in his spine. Grunting, he slid down the wall and landed on the floor in a heap. The Colonel laughed from his side, a menacing, cruel, child laugh. But after a moment, the hunter cracked his neck, readjusted his spine, and then pushed back up from the ground once again. He leveled himself and his sword in front of him.

_Here's the hardest part of the job…_

* * *

Kei continued to hover her way down the hall, both guns out. She struggled to look ahead more with her "second sight", but that was too much for her to manage. She was barely containing herself right now. Her head was burning with the levitation, and anything else was only added strain. But she forced herself to keep going. So far so good, but nothing else yet.

Abruptly, however, she heard upcoming footsteps. But she saw nothing. Frowning, she realized her sight was too limited. She grunted, grit her teeth, and forced herself to look forward more. Sure enough, as she did, she saw that five more guards were coming up. They were only military type and not too bad, but there were still a lot of them. And right now, she was hovering right in the middle of the hall. As she looked at them, she saw them freeze, as if they were astonished or shocked. No doubt that was at Kei's own bizarre appearance. But it wouldn't last long.

Quickly, the woman cut the levitation and dropped to the ground. It was a hard thing to deal with, landing on burnt, bloody stumps. After a moment, however, she bit down with the pain, and quickly pushed herself to one side, into a small enclave opening on one side. For anyone else it was too small, but with no legs it made it a bit easier for her to move in. And soon she was inside, and quickly reinforced herself by focusing on shielding her body. Bullets soon shot up the area around her.

Kei felt sweat mounting. Her heart was racing. Scanning ahead to identify the five forces before her as well as shielding herself from several high impact projectiles was hurting more and more. Her endurance was beginning to break. She was losing her strength and the pain was growing more chronic and acute. But still, she had to press on, even if it meant killing everyone in here herself.

However…she didn't believe that was the case, for some reason. Somehow, she was sensing something familiar around her…nearby. But for now, she was alone.

Kei panted as she considered the new situation. She was pinned down now. With two good legs and hips, perhaps she could turn and do something about these men. But for now, she didn't have anything. She was crippled and down on the ground. She couldn't turn and get off good shots. That made her angry. Great, now what was she supposed to do? Wait until they came at her?

However, Kei did get another idea. She regretted that it would intensify her pain, but again she had no choice. Quickly, she took up one of the guns. She grasped the stock and barrel and rapidly cocked it, knocking out five bullets. Once she had them all out, she put the gun down and quickly picked up the five shells. After that, she took a deep breath, and got ready to focus on several things at once.

Moments later, straining all of her fibers of being, Kei grit her teeth and moaned in pain. As she did, she quickly put a designation on the five bullets in her hand. As she did, she simultaneously thought of the five people out in front of her. She struggled to see the same five images at once. She watched them all, each one of them coming out one at a time…each of them coming for her…imagined the five bullets coming out of her hand…imagined them hitting the five men before her. Sweat began to bead off her brow. Her heart pounded heavy in her chest. But finally, she made the move. She released the power, and sent the bullets flying.

The five men saw nothing, nothing but five little specks shoot out, snake and twirl through the sky, dart this way and that, and then imbed themselves within them. Kei, on her part, gasped and waited, until finally she began to see the images fade. One by one, they all disappeared as they fell back. At last, the five of them were all dead, and Kei was once again in the clear.

Kei felt sweat dripping down all around on the floor beneath her. She felt cold and weak all over. She didn't want to think of anything, especially not her powers. But she had to go. She couldn't rest yet. There was a lot more work to be done. And though she doubted she had the power, she had to get moving.

Finally, Kei pulled herself out from behind the enclave, and began to move forward. But for now…she merely dragged herself along rather than hovered.

* * *

"Ok. I give up." Lupin's voice rang out innocently. Moments later, the rogue emerged from the other side of the bullet riddled wall. He smiled sheepishly, considering the danger he was facing. In addition to the four heavy-armored troops, they now had the monstrous looking Thorne with them. He was truly a monster now. However, Lupin addressed them all with his simple looks. Once he was out, he had his hands up. His luger was still in one hand.

Thorne immediately saw this. His chain gun was moved down under the barrel, and a different attachment, one with some sort of focusing lens, was there instead. It appeared to be an experimental laser, and unknown to Lupin it was a modification of the same type first employed in the first Akira incident. He aimed this gun right for the thief. "Drop the weapon."

Lupin responded by tossing it to the ground with a shrug. "Well, ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do, I guess."

After a moment, however, Thorne merely grinned. "Good. Now, if none of your meddling can get in the way, I can carve you up with the criminal fate you deserve." He raised the barrel more menacingly. "Now, I'd just love to see how this cuts into flesh, especially yours. You're irritated me ever since I had to listen to your blathering back in the middle of what would have been a good breakfast. So what body part would you like to lose first?" He ventured darkly, his eyes flashing a sinister smile. "How about that one organ that gives you so much trouble, hmm?" He wavered his weapon again near Lupin's privates.

Lupin gulped and turned a pale shade, but kept his sheepish grin. "Uh, no thanks. I've already got a circumcision. How 'bout an innocent last request, man of metal?"

Thorne glared at him a moment longer, but then finally gave a shrug. "Fine. But one false move, and I'll be on you. I can see what's in your pockets and what you're reaching for, and my weapon fires near the speed of light."

"Duly noted." Lupin replied. With that, he carelessly reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket. A moment later, he pulled out, of all things, a small comb and a personal mirror with it. Once out, the guards looking at him appeared confused. Thorne, however, grinned and chuckled at him.

"Give me a break. You'll waste the last of your life on vanity?"

"Hey, just because you honestly don't care if you look like gum on someone's shoe doesn't mean I don't." Lupin responded, causing the man to frown a bit in reply. At any rate, he held the mirror in front of his face, and styled his hair calmly and slowly using his comb. Thorne grew a bit impatient, for he took a while. But eventually, he did finish up. And once he had done so, he calmly returned the comb and mirror…not to his pocket, but behind his suitcoat. That done, he put his hands up again before the cyborg and looked innocent. "Less work for the undertaker now, eh?"

Thorne sneered. "There isn't going to be anything left of you but burnt toothpicks, fool. Too bad you never left a Lupin the Fourth." With that, the man aimed his weapon downward just where he had threatened to, and fired off a shot.

For a split second, the beam went forth, sailing straight at the rogue, and then struck right at the desired spot. The blast hit, and seemed to shoot straight into Lupin, without any burn or anything else. It seemed to accomplish the desired effect…

When most suddenly, another identical laser shot out from slightly higher, and this time was at such an angle that it struck Thorne right between the eyes. The cybernetic man froze in shock, his one eye bulging and leaning back in surprise as the laser vanished into his own skull, burning a perfect hole there. Moments later, the man turned off his laser, and in response the other laser vanished as well. Then, in a flash, the insides of his brain appeared to cook, boil over, and then rupture. His head suddenly exploded, sending disgusting matter and circuitry everywhere. The ex-officer fell over dead in an instant. The armored guards turned to Lupin in shock. In response, the rogue kept his hands up, but gave a little weasel laugh.

"Heh-heh-heh…guess I do have super powers after all, eh?"

The troops waited a moment, but then responded. They raised their weapons and opened fire on the man before them. Lupin kept his arms up, and stood there simply. As he did, the bullets ripped apart the wall behind him, and true enough did hit the man, but merely went through and hit him behind. But nothing was done. Lupin wasn't one hit worse for any of it. The men stopped, and gaped at the thief in surprise. Lupin merely gave his little laugh again.

"Hey, does this make me the One?"

The four stood in stunned silence. But that was enough for Lupin. Quickly, he shot out his foot to his fallen gun and hooked it up. After a moment, it was hit up in the air, and Lupin quickly lowered a hand and snatched it out of mid-air. He quickly took aim, and fired off from his reloaded clip, hitting all four of the armored soldiers in a crucial spot, now that he had more than enough time to see it. One by one, each of them gaped and gasped, and then each one fell to the ground.

Lupin blew on the barrel of his gun, and then slid it back into his side holster. "Brains over brawn wins again." He cheered. Then, without offering any explanation to anyone as to how his superhuman feat was achieved, he merely walked on forward.

* * *

Kohaku spun around, and swung his bare hand at Inuyasha. Immediately, long shafts erupted from the ends of his fingertips, and arrows flashed at the dog demon. The hanyou managed to twist in one direction to miss most of them, but one still hit him in the shoulder. He grunted, but still managed to charge forward and swing his sword at Kohaku. For once, the dragon managed to leap over and dodge the blow. But it was only a momentary victory. He tried to dive down and kick Inuyasha in the face, but the dog demon managed to dodge and slice his talons at him, cutting a deep gash into his thigh. After that, both of them leapt away from each other, and quickly moved to opposite sides of the room.

Inuyasha landed on his feet and panted a little, but Kohaku stumbled a bit when he landed on his own feet, and then quivered as he struggled to hold himself up. Both of them were taking damage. That was obvious enough as Inuyasha surveyed his own wounds when he ripped the arrow from his shoulder. But between the two of them, Kohaku was the weaker. His clothing was nearly in tatters. His mask was barely held on, mostly by the blue band around his head. His blood dripped everywhere, and he was growing pale. He would be the one who would weaken and fail first, at this rate. Already, he was losing his power. Inuyasha knew that victory was all but certain now, unless Kohaku did one other thing.

That's exactly what Kohaku did next.

Focusing his energy, the spirit creature flexed and then ripped its shreds of clothing off. Its body became large and covered itself with white feathers. The injuries remained, but it still grew larger and more fierce than ever. Soon, Inuyasha was no longer looking at Kohaku, but the monstrous white dragon he had become.

Inuyasha merely grinned and swung his blade dangerously. "Go on and try it."

The thing hissed, and then lunged forward, teeth out and gnashing, straight for the hanyou. Quickly, Inuyasha dodged to one side, as Kohaku's talons and jaws slashed through his kimono before hitting the floor. Despite being flesh and blood, Kohaku gashed a massive hole into the metal substance, something that shocked the dog demon. But before he could react, Kohaku flicked his tail powerfully behind him, connecting with Inuyasha and smashing him backward. Soon, he groaned as he went sailing across the room and crashing into the wall. He hit hard and slid down in a heap, but he quickly gained his senses back, and looked up to see that Kohaku had already spun around and was making for him again.

Inuyasha quickly drew himself back to his feet, and then leapt into the air as Kohaku tore through the room and then crashed into Inuyasha's wall. He tore it to pieces using his talons and teeth again, but while Inuyasha was still leaping over him the monster, Kohaku had already righted himself and leapt at the beast again. Inuyasha turned in shock, but could do little except swing to avoid the jaws of the monster as Kohaku crashed into him again. This time, his talons didn't miss, and they dug into the side of the dog demon. He cried in agony.

Kohaku wasn't finished, but attempted to throw Inuyasha to the ground with him. However, Inuyasha wasn't done yet. As he took him down, the hanyou twisted his blade around and jabbed it in Kohaku's shoulder. Blood gushed forth, and the beast lessened up enough on Inuyasha to leap away off of his arms to a safe distance, and right himself on his feet. Moments later, he touched down as Kohaku's massive body crashed to the ground as well. The white dragon looked up and foamed and spat in rage at Inuyasha. Like a deadly serpent, it lashed out its head at him. Again, Inuyasha managed to dodge. But Kohaku soon brought back and attacked again. This time, Inuyasha had to bring up Tetsaiga to guard himself, as a large, hot, stinking mouth full of teeth sailed right for him. He was barely strong enough to prevent the bite and narrowly stopped the dragon.

Kohaku didn't let up. He pushed back against Inuyasha, moving his mouth and head over his body, and bracing himself to push down. Soon, the dog demon was tensing up and struggling to push back against him. He grit his teeth and brought his other hand up to support Tetsaiga, but Kohaku didn't let up. He only put more and more pressure on, and moved himself over to where Inuyasha couldn't easily escape. He kept forcing down, intent to swallow or crush the dog demon. Soon, Inuyasha had to brace himself down on one knee, but the dragon wouldn't stop. He kept shoving forward. Inuyasha began to sweat and strain under the pressure. But at last, he had enough.

"Alright you…" He hissed. "Wanna get a bite to eat? Eat this!"

With that, Inuyasha shot out one of his legs and kicked Kohaku in his enlongated throat so hard that thick red blood exploded from his open mouth and landed on the dog demon. The thing was stunned, but Inuyasha wasn't over. Abruptly, he twisted his blade in one direction, and the force of Tetsaiga sliced into Kohaku's gums and pushed his roots to one side. Two of his teeth were wrenched painfully out, and the thing's head was deflected to one side. As it roared in pain, Inuyasha went to one side as he put the head of the beast to another side, and let it crash into the ground hard, unleashing all the force it had wanted to hit Inuyasha with instead to push itself into the ground.

That done, Inuyasha quickly leapt back, and watched. The white dragon, gagging and stunned at its own blow, slowly staggered up to all fours. It shook its now bleeding head, and coughed up more blood. But then, it turned and glared again at the dog demon. It curled itself up, and prepared to move again. But Inuyasha waited for it. He kept himself at the ready, and kept his blade up. He inhaled deep and halted for the move. Finally, Kohaku roared, and then lunged at Inuyasha again.

But it wouldn't work this time. Inuyasha dodged underneath the white dragon by ducking and rolling forward. He closed the distance between the two faster than ever, and soon was underneath him closer than the dragon anticipated. Kohaku looked down, but it was too late. Inuyasha drove his blade up and dug into Kohaku's underbelly, and it didn't matter how many scales or feathers he had. The blade went into soft flesh and blood was produced as a long gash was dug into the white dragon. When he finished clearing Inuyasha, his body didn't land but crashed into the ground, tumbling over material and debris and smashing into the ground. After that, the beast gurgled and writhed a bit, but it began to slow down. Too much blood had been lost. Too many crashes had occurred. It was done.

Inuyasha frowned and turned around to face the fallen dragon. It was almost over now. Nothing was left for the dragon to defend itself with. And so, the dog demon brought his blade over his shoulder, and began to search for the meeting place for the Wind Scar…

"Sit!"

For a brief moment, Inuyasha's face went flabbergasted. _No way…that couldn't be…_

Yet sure enough, impossible as it seemed…Inuyasha went smashing down flat onto the ground. The power of the curse on him made him sprawl flat on the floor, and soon he grumbled and groaned as he slowly pulled himself back off of the ground. What had happened just now? He recognized the voice, but that couldn't have been…

As Inuyasha turned and looked, he saw that it wasn't. No…it was another female he was rather annoyed at on a constant basis: Washu. The small woman was standing over him now, smiling and waving a small device in front of herself tauntingly.

"How the…how did you…" He groaned from the floor.

"Oh, that?" She inquired innocently. "You see, while you were unconscious, I took off your little necklace and had a look at it. Seems it had some sort of energy power over you to make you sit, but that it only worked when you heard a certain command from one specific person. So I whipped up a vocal command set that would sound just like the person and make just the right noise." To demonstrate, she pressed a button on the device again. Sure enough, in the same young woman's voice, the words came out: "Sit!"

Again, Inuyasha was smashed down against the ground, this time leaving a small impression in the metal. Groaning and fuming in rage, the dog demon slowly pulled his face off the ground. "…Could you…please…not do that…!"

Washu looked at her device curiously. "Strange. I didn't actually know what it was going to say until I finished it. Huh. So simple. And it sounds like you've got a little girlfriend too…" She spoke this last part with a crafty little smile.

Inuyasha snarled and rose to his feet in a flash. "Look, shut up about it!" He snapped at her. "And what's the big idea? I was about to finish him and you stopped me!"

Hearing that, however, Washu's look turned to a frown as well. "I'm not going to let you kill him. I told you that once."

The dog demon grit his teeth in rage. "Why not? He's just another monster!"

"Oh?" Washu innocently replied. "Like you?"

The hanyou went silent at that. His face softened a little. He didn't have an honest reply for that statement, because he had long suffered under the impression of being a monster and evil in the eyes of many. They had persecuted him relentlessly for that, making his life a living hell. That was why he wanted the shards…to at least be presentable in some of their eyes if not all. But for now he was nothing, still hated by many if not all. And so, he couldn't immediately respond to Washu's comments. And so, the chibi scientist calmly strolled by him, and began to make her way toward Kohaku.

Weak and bleeding as the white dragon was, it turned to her as she approached, and snarled and snapped like a vicious dog.

Inuyasha saw this and crossed his arms with a frown. "I wouldn't get too close. He'll bite you in half."

"Just a moment." Washu responded. With that, she put her current device away in her pocket. Instead, she pulled out another device. Inuyasha turned and looked over to it with a disinterested expression. However, on seeing it, he voiced his intrigue anyway.

"That's not that machine you had out before."

"No, it's not." Washu calmly answered. "They've been brainwashing their soldiers here, but they couldn't do it to this one. They put some implant in his brain."

"So what're you going to do?"

Washu shrugged. "Knock it out…in a painful manner." With that, she held up the machine, pointed it at Kohaku, and pressed a button. Immediately, a bolt of electricity shot out and struck the white dragon in the head. Kohaku reacted violently. The beast reared up and thrashed about madly in response. It writhed and cast about in fury, and smashed its head to the ground again and again in response to it. But Washu kept shocking him, not letting up for a second. She watched him cast about in pain endlessly in response to this, and not seem to improve at all to begin with. Inuyasha was a bit shocked, and almost wondered if Washu was just torturing him

Yet he knew she wasn't. As he turned and looked to her…he saw just a little that her face, while appearing carefree and indifferent…had tears in their eyes. But she continued to mercilessly electrocute the spirit creature.

Finally, a pop went off in the room. A flash of sparks came from Kohaku's forehead, and disappeared a moment later. A plume of smoke went up instead in its place. Only then did Washu let up. She broke off the device, and allowed the white dragon to rest.

The creature let out a long, slow groan. However, as it did so, to Inuyasha's surprise the groan started off animal, but slowly twisted and distorted and turned…and became human. Kohaku's tortured body shrank. His green hair vanished. His feathers and scales returned to skin. His limbs resumed normal shapes, and his rags reappeared around his body…for now his clothing was rags. When they had finished, his mask was still in place, but the headband was now smoldering and smoking in the front of it. The control device was gone. He lay down in a bloody, motionless heap, and didn't budge an inch.

Washu, however, quickly rushed down to the side of the thing. Inuyasha was hesitant, and kept Tetsaiga out a moment. But in the end, he sighed and replaced it back in its sheath, turning it back into its normal form as he did so. Once Washu was next to it, she reached over and grabbed the end of his hood and pulled it back. After doing so, the face of Kohaku was at last exposed. He did indeed look like nothing more than a young man. His hair was a bit long and only trimmed in front of his eyes, but now it was covered with sweat. His face was stained with blood and bruised. If he didn't know who he truly was, Inuyasha might have pitied him as some poor kid.

Kohaku moaned and stirred a bit, but then managed to crack his eyelids open. As they did open, Inuyasha also saw that his eyes were no longer blank or empty. They had life in them, although it was weak and dazzled. And now, he was curious and confused looking. He stared about the area, seeing Washu and seeing Inuyasha.

"Who…are you?" He asked at last, his voice also sounding pleasant and young, but genuinely confused.

Washu grinned in reply. "I am the illustrious Chibi Washu, the world's greatest scientist. This is Inuyasha, my faithful dog boy."

Inuyasha scowled in reply.

"Where am I?" Kohaku responded. "Where's Chihiro?"

"You should stay down." Washu reassured. "You got pretty beaten up."

Kohaku hesitated a moment at that, but then grit his teeth and strained. Slowly, he began to move to try and push himself back off the floor.

"Hey! Didn't you just hear what I said?" Washu retorted.

"I…have to get up." Kohaku responded. "Especially…if he's still around…"

"Who?" Inuyasha accosted.

Kohaku stopped his attempts to rise for the moment and exhaled slowly. He turned his head over to Inuyasha and looked through his beaten vision. "That…that thing… It smelled like a human, but it was insanely powerful…even more than me, Ubaba, or Zeneba could ever be..."

"What are you saying?" Inuyasha immediately asked, his voice a little strained. "There's someone even stronger than you running around?"

"His power…is isn't magical." Kohaku went on. "It's something else. Nothing I did worked on him. He took my body…and twisted it into knots, literally. I thought he would have killed me…I thought I was dead… But then he did something to me…and the first thing I remember after that…is here…" Kohaku groaned a bit. He looked down at his battered body in confusion. "I'm…cut up? Who did this?"

Both Washu and Inuyasha avoided the question for the moment. "Who was that person?" Washu asked. "We'll probably have to kill him pretty soon."

Kohaku reacted at that. "What?" He asked in some shock. "No…no…you can't. Nothing can kill that thing."

"I'll be the judge of that." Inuyasha answered sternly. "What'd he call himself?"

Kohaku paused a moment, thinking about it. But then he answered. "The Colonel."

Both Washu and Inuyasha froze at that. They turned and looked to each other, quickly exchanging information nonverbally between the two of them. So, that's why Thorne had made such a big deal about the Colonel. If he had that kind of power, then he had to be pretty strong and probably some sort of unnatural creature himself. But what more, if he really was that dangerous, then that meant that D could be in some serious trouble. They had to move pretty quickly, and hopefully find him and help him out if they needed to. However, they still had their own issues to deal with as well.

Inuyasha finally spoke up. "You better get moving and get the kids."

"What about you?" Washu asked.

"I'm going to go back, and try to look for D." The dog demon answered.

"I might need you." Washu announced.

But that that, they both heard a grunting on the ground. They looked down, and saw Kohaku was pushing himself up again. "Wait…" He spoke out. "I'll help. I'll come with you."

Inuyasha snorted. "You don't look in too good shape to do anything. Besides, you don't know it, but you've done enough already."

"I…heal quickly." Kohaku responded. "Just help me get up. If you're going to fight that thing, then I'll help you."

Both Washu and Inuyasha turned to each other at that. They paused a moment, and thought over that prospect. True, he had been an enemy until now. But if he was free, then maybe he could still do something even as weak as he was. They both hesitated a moment longer, and then Washu smiled and shrugged.

"Well, we do need a new member now."

* * *

Genma shot forward and cross slashed at Miyu. She leapt back and managed to dodge past it, but Genma kept dashing forward, furiously slashing back and forth as he did so. Finally, Genma drove his sword forward to try and impale her. However, the vampire princess managed to spin out of the way, and just avoid the blade being run forward. Immediately, Larve moved in and fired on Genma from behind, shooting beams of purple energy at his back while Miyu got out of the way. Genma ignored him, although the energy tore into his back and ripped huge rifts into his flesh. He spun around as well and drove his blade forward again. This time, he drove his sword right forward into her shoulder.

Miyu hissed, and quickly ripped his body one way. She didn't care that the blade tore through her arm and shoulder, but kept fighting. She drove her fist forward with her nails out, and struck Genma so strongly in the head that he was sent flying across the room. He nearly struck the wall, but managed to spin around in mid-air and right himself just in time. It was good for him too, for at that moment Miyu swept her arm toward him in a grand gesture, and a huge blade materialized and sailed right for him. Quickly, Genma raced forward, and using his own sword he deflected the blade to one side. Larve dove in afterward, his own talons out, ready to slice into the immortal next. But Genma sliced through as he went, and though he was slashed a little on the side he managed to cut through Larve like a car through smoke, and the Shinma was soon harmlessly behind him.

Genma aimed his blade again at Miyu's heart. Gritting her teeth, the vampire slapped both hands together and caught the blade one inch from her chest. For a moment, the two sides held and buckled at one another. Both grit their teeth, and glared into each other's eyes…although Miyu's were far more ferocious and Genma's were more taunting. At last, her eyes grew extremely red, and a fire abruptly broke out on Genma's shirt. However, he didn't react. He kept pushing, letting the fire spread across his shirt, and then alight on his flesh next. Even as the smell of burning skin and hair began to come, he still pushed forward, and began to outdo Miyu. Finally, however, Larve came in behind him. Abruptly, white talons ripped through Genma's chest, and blood was splattered over the vampire princess as Larve's four white fingers went through. The Shinma then hoisted Genma off the ground and threw him clear across the room, this time smashing him so hard into the wall that the spine could be heard snapping.

Miyu hissed and breathed a little, healing her own wounds. Genma lay in a bloody, burning heap for a moment, before the fire burnt out on his shirt. After that, the immortal reconnected his back, healed his chest wounds and bones, and then rose up once again. He only had a smoldering rag for a shirt now, but other than that was unmarked.

The immortal grinned at her. "Strong as you are, how long do you think you can keep this up? It actually takes something out of you to heal your injuries, but not mine. I can keep this up forever."

Miyu frowned in response, holding her breath. She didn't want to show her exhaustion. But Genma could be right. He was immortal, and he didn't look the least bit worse for wear even given all that the vampire princess was doing to him. So how was she supposed to kill him now? As she stood there thinking, she realized that there might be only one way…

Miyu had considered doing this for some time, but never found the need. It had always been a failsafe in her constant battles. Unfortunately, this technique could only be used once. And it was severely costly. She had wondered if she would ever use it, though somewhere deep in her mind she knew she would. After all, her quest was to rid the world of all Shinma…even good friends. There was no other alternative now, it seemed. In the end, she had to use the power on a man who was demon-like rather than an actual demon. She hesitated only a moment before agreeing to it. After all…it seemed as if all things were coming to an end.

The vampire turned to Larve, whose stoic white mask turned back to her. They both looked into each other's eyes for a moment. The latter saw a deep sadness within her eyes, for this truly did pain her, but also conviction. When they did, he understood everything. He only gave her a small nod, then turned back to Genma.

The assassin grinned. "This should be good. What's your plan this time?"

"Your destruction." Miyu flatly answered. Her voice only shook a little when she gave the final command. "Go, Larve."

Immediately, the Shinma spread his arms wide, and gave out an abnormal cry. The shadows gathered around him, and he seemed to grow larger and more fearsome than ever. This gesture made the room grow cold and still, even more so than before. Now, it truly did feel like a tomb. Genma actually reared back a little and looked surprised. But a moment later, his surprise was gone, for Larve reared forward and shot straight at him. The assassin managed a smile at this, and leveled his sword in front of him, ready to attack the Shinma next. But Larve didn't give an attack this time. Rather, he shot straight at Genma, and once he reached him, in one fluid movement he engulfed the immortal in his own blackness.

There was nothing for a few moments but a thrashing around of Larve from within, as if some sort of flood or wave had crashed in Genma, or as if he was enveloped in something and trying to fight his way out. The Shinma himself rolled over again and again on himself, and a great mess was produced. All of this lasted a while, until at last Larve calmed down, stood straight and tall, and turned around to face Miyu. As he did, the vampire looked down to the shadowy body of the Shinma. Within him, she saw the imprint of a rough face protruding from the blackness, and something of a body as well. Her servant had absorbed Genma.

However, the immortal was far from dead. From within the blackness, the shadow of his face chuckled at her. _"You can't kill me, princess."_ It spoke with a faint echo._ "Even this doesn't work. You may have absorbed me into Larve, but you can't hold me forever. I'm still alive and here."_

"Not for long." Miyu hissed in response. After that, she forced herself to ignore the man. She didn't want to think of him at the end. Instead, she looked up, and into the white mask of Larve again. The thing stared back, but said nothing in response. As she stared, however, Miyu's face grew softer…as soft as her vampire heart could make it. She grew more innocent and simple there, almost seeming to regain her humanity. From beneath the mask, the Shinma's own eyes softened a bit, and understood this. Then, at last, he raised a hand and grasped the mask on his own face…and slowly pulled it away.

Larve's face was revealed. It wasn't a monster's image or something horrifying. The Shinma had white skin, but other than that was the face of a man…and a sad one. His face was downcast and his look low and depressed as he stared at Miyu. He knew, as well as she did, what was coming next. But it wasn't his to question anymore, just to look on and tell her to go ahead. Miyu's throat tightened…and for the first time she could remember in her damned life, she shed a tear.

"I won't forget you, Larve…"

With that, Miyu reached inside her kimono and took Washu's device. She pulled it out, held it before her, and then after hesitating a second crushed it.

Immediately, light flooded the area again. Not a trace of shadow was left within the room. And right underneath one of the big lights in the hallway was Larve containing his prisoner. Larve didn't struggle. He merely closed his eyes and leaned his head back, and let the light do its work. Soon, his skin began to shrivel. Flakes began to peel off of it. Fire burst out on the flesh, and spread into the blackness. Pieces of the shadow that made him began to fall off and to the ground bit by bit, only to turn to smoke on landing. Through it all, Larve said nothing…but Genma did.

_"What're you…uh…AH…AAAAAAAH!"_

The shadow within Larve contorted with fear and pain, which gave way to agony, as the fires wrapped around it. Genma's immortality was gone. Now that he was a part of Larve, Larve's own fate was the same as his. And as the Shinma turned and burned, the victim within it did so as well. Larve never screamed in pain himself. He too had lived a long and cursed life, and now it was finally at an end. Now, he too was released, his work done, and his soul freed. He opened his eyes to look down and stare longingly at Miyu one last time. Somehow, despite the agony as his face twisted and turned into a burnt skull, he managed one last smile, assuring her that he regretted nothing. And Miyu, her lips quivering, her body feeling that foreign sensation of deep emotional pain...managed to smile back and wave one last time.

Genma's face contorted and twisted as if it was putty in the hands of an angry child. But eventually, it twisted around until it melted into the flames and darkness and then was consumed. Larger fragments of Larve began to break off and burn up as well, but they left no ash or remains. They left only a trace of smoke before vanishing. More pieces did so until each piece was gone. The skull shattered into smoke. The center of the dark cloak evaporated into nothing. At long last, everything was gone. The last of Genma's screams vanished into an echo, and the last of Larve vanished. He was gone. Both were gone. One a demon who had gained humanity, the other a human who had become a devil.

Miyu stood and stared there for a moment, now alone in the empty hallway. But then, she bowed her head and slowly dropped to her knees. She was not able to rise again.

* * *

The Colonel didn't even so much as extend a hand to smash D into the ground. Afterward, the dhampire went flying forward across the ground, smashing into one desk and chair and row of equipment after another. The force was so strong that he crashed right through each thing, often destroying whatever was on the desks or shelves and sending their contents raining down on his head. That was especially rough in cases of broken glass. After he had thrown him across the room and struck a wall, he pulled him up against the wall itself and then pinned him there. He held the dhampire there a moment, who grunted and strained and struggled against the force holding him. Then, he merely smiled and snorted. Instantly, all four of D's limbs were broken, and he was dropped to the ground like a rag doll.

After the crash, the room was silent a moment. The Colonel continued to calmly stand with his arms crossed. D, on his part, panted hard and wallowed on the ground in one of his own blood stains. He groaned and strained, struggling to stay conscious. His head was beginning to swim. His body was starting to feel weak. He was growing hungry now. He had lost too much energy. Now, he was the one who needed to feed. And there was nothing for his left hand to eat here but air. So far, the Colonel had been treating him as his plaything, and as he continued to accumulate damage, the withered boy hadn't even shifted weight. It was all he could do to keep breathing as his bones slowly, more slowly than normal, began to knit again.

"The only reason I was beaten last time and that I am not your god right now..." The Colonel spoke simply after a moment. "Is because I was still dependent on a drug. That was the only reason the agent managed to get close enough to stab me. I've overcome that difficulty now. And frankly, the only reason that you aren't dead is because its so much fun to watch you get up and keep trying. I haven't even batted an eye at you yet, and still you're trying to fight me." He smiled and chuckled a bit at this. "It's like watching a retarded gerbil continuously trying to grab a food pellet attached to an electrode. It's really funny, if you think about it."

D merely breathed hard, and struggled to rise. But it was impossible now. He was covered with sweat, and barely able to move. He needed more time.

The Colonel smiled sadistically at him a moment longer, but then simply turned around. When he did, the doorway that was nearest to him slid open. He calmly began to walk into this new chamber. It appeared smaller from what D could see. But other than a deal of conduits on the wall leading into the interior, he could see nothing. "Now, if you will excuse me," The Colonel continued. "It's time for me to complete my evolution. It will be interesting to see what I can do to you after this..."

The Colonel vanished into the chamber, and the doors slid shut behind him. D panted and breathed, but then clenched his teeth and pushed hard, forcing his body up and his legs underneath him. It was painful, and he wasn't fully healed yet, but he had no choice. He had to get up. He quickly turned his nodachi around and braced himself with it like a crutch, and with a mighty pull managed to force himself up to his feet. Still, he was wobbly. His head was dizzy. His mouth hungered for plasma. He could barely stand and he felt light headed. But still, he managed to hobble forward. He had to stop him...although he hadn't the faintest idea how. If he injected the material, and it worked, then they definitely hadn't a prayer against him. His tension drove his healing on, and halfway across the room his legs finished healing. He managed to stand, and quickly ran the rest of the way to the room.

Once he reached the doors, he quickly flashed out his blade and slashed a triangular cut around them. He didn't bother to see if they would open. After making the cut, the middle of the doors fell out, and D quickly ducked inside and jumped within. Once there, he stood still, and looked about the room for a moment.

There were conduits leading from the door to the chamber. They extended back along some sort of hall that led from the door into a room deeper inside. There, they encircled the area and seemed to project to the center. D could sense a change the moment he stepped in. Some sort of stimulation was going on, being generated by the conduits and leading into the center. It seemed electrical. But whatever it was, he didn't care. The Colonel was in the center, standing in front of some sort of small podium/desk. It seemed to arise right out from the ground. There was some sort of series of small test-tube-like containers carried in some sort of rack there, and there was a small hypodermic gun next to it. The place was much more dimly lit, but one could still see clearly.

The Colonel looked up as he entered, and gave him a smile. "Well, glad you were able to drag yourself this far. You saved me a walk." With that, he looked down, took out one of the containers, and put it into the gun.

D frowned, and held up his sword once again. He rushed forward toward the Colonel, intending to strike his items and destroy them if not the Colonel himself. However, without even looking up, the withered boy acted on him again. Abruptly, his nodachi twisted to one side, and pierced one of the conduits instead. Immediately, white hot pain rocked through D's system as a massive electrical charge thundered through his being. It was horribly painful, and would have killed a mortal. Abruptly, the force of the charge ripped him out of the conduit and sent him and his sword flying back down the corridor, until his head smashed against the back wall. Immediately, he slumped to the ground after giving out a huge clang, his body smoking and smoldering.

"You make it so easy." The Colonel replied with a chuckle, not even looking up. "Now be a good boy, and stand still as I awaken the power of Akira." With that, he pulled up the hypoderm, twisted it around, and then aimed it into the tubes in the back of his head. He inhaled deeply and clenched his teeth. "Now watch carefully...this part is really painful..." With that, he pulled the trigger, and injected the liquid into his coil.

The Colonel immediately stiffened, and with a gasp he put his hand down and braced himself against the desk. He began to pant hard, and his different colored eyes seemed to bulge within his sockets. The coils seemed to throb at the back of his head, and he looked as if he just had a splitting migrane. That lasted for a few moments, as D panted and gasped himself, and slowly felt the pain fade in his muscles. He slowly managed to get up to his feet, staring forward at the Colonel the whole time, and dragging his nodachi up with him. Finally, the Colonel let out a huge blast of air. He gasped and breathed easier now, as if the pain had finally subsided. Still panting, he looked up to D, and gave a wicked glare.

"Won't be long now, hunter..."

* * *

Lupin continued to move down the hallway. So far, after that lucky break, there hadn't been anything new. It seemed they were a bit stripped for men after everything that had happened. That was fine by him. Ahead there was a metal stairway. He figured that the detention levels would be on the bottom, so one more floor and he would be clear. Quickly, he rushed up to the stairs, and then rushed down them, taking two at a time as his lanky body descended them. Within seconds, he was down at the bottom, and facing another doorway. He quickly rushed forward and ran through it.

There was a line of corrdiors up ahead, with halls leading out to either side in several points. It stretched back deep into the other side of the rig, without signs of any people or directions. It was a uniform and directionless sight. Lupin frowned at it.

"Oh, for goodness sake. How am I supposed to find my way here?"

Lupin immediately regretted saying that, for the moment he did a dark suit jumped out right in front of the thief. He immediately pulled out his gun. Luckily, however, Lupin already had his gun out. He quickly stopped, raised it up, and aimed it right at the man's head. By the time he did, the man had pulled up his gun as well, but he was aimed only at Lupin's chest. The thief already knew that there was no good. And so, he merely smiled.

"Wanna drop your gun?" He asked him simply.

Lupin's cocky smile soon vanished into a look of worry, however, as his peripheral vision picked up two huge minigun barrels pointed to either side of his head. He heard a clicking in the sound of both of his ears, indicating that both were preparing to fire. The thief looked to both sides, and swallowed deeply. Two of the heavy gunners were there, one on either side. Fear began to well up within him. This certainly wasn't what he was expecting. Now what was he supposed to do?

The dark suit smiled, and raised his own gun to Lupin's face, so that both were now aiming at each other. The rogue gulped again, sweat breaking out from his brow. He had to think of something, but for once he was fresh out of ideas, and he had a feeling that these guys weren't going to pause long enough to arrest him so that he could think of a plan. For a moment, he felt his doom was finally sealed...

Then, abruptly, two black dots shot through the air and straight to the gunners. They both moved right through their shields, pierced the openings in their armor, and blasted them in the head through the cracks. Blood splurted out from the wounds as a result. Lupin was shocked to see this, but not nearly so much as the dark suit in front of him. He turned his head to either side, watching in surprise as both men collapsed and died. Realizing that whatever had killed them had come from behind, he quickly turned around to face what it was. But in that moment, he forgot about Lupin, which was his tragic mistake. The thief was far more quick-thinking, and he quickly leapt on this opportunity. His gun was still aimed at the head of the dark suit, and immediately he fired the moment the head of the man had turned. Moments later, as a spray of blood shot out on the ground, the dark suit fell to the ground. When he fell, he at last revealed what had killed the other two men. She was laying on the ground behind him, having just dragged herself around the back corner.

Lupin's face instantly brightened up. "Kei-ty pie!" He marveled at her. However, that face quickly turned to shock. He looked down and saw that she was in bad shape. She was sweating and panting, and looked barely able to move herself. But that was the least of the problems. He quickly realized she had no legs, and her eyes were bandaged, but he could tell enough to see that she had no eyes. They had been gauged out. She held up one pistol, and immediately dropped it in a pant. She breathed hard, and then faltered slightly and groaned.

"Out of all the people who could have come for me...it had to be you..."

Lupin normally would have made some snide comment about her being happy to see him, but right now, he was so shocked at what had happened that his normally rude attitude failed him. Instead, he quickly rushed over to Kei's side. He bent down next to her, and quickly reached down to grab her by the shoulders. "What the hell happened to you? What'd those freaky cyborgs do to you?"

Kei grit her teeth and shook her body wildly, throwing off Lupin's touch. "Don't..._touch_ me." She half-hissed. "I've had enough for one day without having to deal with your perversions..." She winced and gasped a bit. Abruptly, her strength failed, and she fell to the ground again.

Despite the warning, Lupin reached down and began to pull her back up again. "You don't look so hot...I think we need to get that Washu lady over here..."

Kei angrily threw him off again. "I don't need her help!" She spoke with a hiss, and immediately grunted and faltered again. "I just...have been using my...powers too much... My brain feels like it's on fire... It feels like it wants to bust out of my skull..." She panted hard, and then spoke a bit more quietly. "I hope...this isn't what _he_ felt..."

"Alright, alright, have it your way." Lupin answered with a simple shrug. "But we've still got to get out of here."

"Don't tell me...you stormed this place all by yourself..." Kei continued. "Are the others here...?"

Lupin smiled in response. "All present and accounted for. Well, all except for Genma. But we can talk about that later. We've got to get out of here while D deals with our good friend the Colonel."

Kei turned her head up to that. "What was that?" She immediately asked, her tone earnest and tense.

Lupin merely shrugged. "The ol' half vampire is taking care of things."

Kei paused a moment, but then furiously shook her head. "No. He can't. I know this...this thing... He's too powerful...especially if he's anything like Tetsuo... I need to be there."

"Eh?" Lupin immediately answered. "I thought you just said you were using your powers too much."

"I've got enough for this...if I can hold off long enough." Kei responded. "I just need to get there..."

Lupin paused a moment after that. He squatted there and scratched his nose a bit. After that, however, he gave a shrug. "Well...you're not going to get very far just dragging yourself along like that... You're going to need my help if you plan to get up there before D gets D-molished."

Kei scowled in reply, and turned her head to him. "I don't need, or want, your help."

Lupin shrugged in reply. "Suit yourself." He spoke in his normal wily voice.

Kei paused a moment. She didn't move, but merely held herself up on the ground and paused. Finally, she groaned. He was right. Much as she hated it, she had no other choice. If she wanted to get off this rig anytime soon...if she wanted to get to the Colonel in time...she needed Lupin's help. And the best way he could help her...would be putting her in an uncompromising position...

The woman groaned again, and rolled her head in place of her eyes. "Oh...fine. If I have to..."

Lupin grinned. "Great!" He responded. Immediately, he got up and ran over to the bodies of the fallen gunmen. Once he was there, he quickly dipped back down and began to undo some of their harnesses around their armor and weapons.

"Just keep in mind that I'm married, your perverted bastard." Kei grumbled as she lowered her head and waited for him to finish.

* * *

The door abruptly flew open, but not before a giant fist-sized indentation briefly appeared in the middle of it, bulging it out. Seconds later, the entire metal door, which had been hydraulically locked, flew forward and slammed to the ground. The two heavy gunners in the room immediately reacted. They twirled their huge bodies around to the front of the hallway. Their views went across either side of it as they did so, revealing "pens" that covered both sides of the hallway which they guarded. It looked rather like some sort of detention level, or rather some sort of animal holding facility. There were bars in front of each small enclave, and each was charged with electricity. It was rather like caging animals in that sense as well.

However, neither of the gunners cared for that at the moment. They turned and faced the newest arrival. What they saw, however, was unexpected. They expected some sort of blasting weapon or armed person. Instead, they saw the extended, clawed fist of a red-kimonoed, gray-haired, monster youth. A small smiling girl was at one of his sides, waving and grinning, with a boy at his other side, dressed in dark rags and glaring angrily into the room with his stunning blue eyes.

"Hello!" The girl chirped merrily. "I think your door is broken."

The gunners didn't answer, but merely hoisted their weapons and prepared to fire. They didn't get a chance, however, as the boy stepped forward and raised both hands. He quickly slapped both together, and then made a brushing motion with one hand off the other, as if he was wiping something off and flinging it toward the men. Somehow, as it turned out, golden sand grains seemed to somehow appear, for they were abruptly flung through the air and toward the two guards. They didn't fall to the ground right away either, but seemed to hover in the air as if they were weightless. They spread out and spread over the two men before them, and held a moment. A second later, they vanished, and the two guards abruptly collapsed into an unconscious heap. The way was soon clear.

Inuyasha immediately strolled into the room. Kohaku followed behind. Washu brought up the rear, and marveled at what he had done. "Wow, you are handy. And you're much cleaner than Fido, too."

"Stop calling me that, damnit!" Inuyasha scowled as he walked in. "You're more annoying than that damn fox!"

Kohaku gestured around him as he walked in. "Well, here they are." He announced. The two group members looked around at the sight. They saw the front of each cell, and saw that each one held a boy. However, it was obvious that something was wrong. These boys were standing as erect as statues in their cells. Their faces were hard and expressionless. Their eyes were empty and cold. Each one was dressed in the same military apparrel, and each had a similar hairstyle. Each one looked at the three as they arrived, watching them like machines or zombies. They said nothing and expressed nothing. "I wouldn't let them out, though. I can sense what they're feeling. They don't feel anything but a desire to kill. They don't respond to love or compassion. They don't respond to anything but commands."

Washu looked around the cells for a moment. Inuyasha looked to her with his own gruff appearance, and noticed her change again. Once more, he saw that look of pity in her eyes. He saw her lip change, turning down with the arousal of some fear and anxiety about them. But it only lasted a moment. Her seriousness was soon swallowed up by her normal child-like demeanor. She smiled again, and reached down to her side. "Well, it's a good thing they have this zombie-like way of staring at us. That'll make this easier. Do you know how long they've been conditioning them?"

Kohaku shrugged. "I'm not even sure I know what 'conditioning' means."

"Hmm...you can be as bad as dog boy..." Washu responded a bit under her breath, as she bent over and lowered the device to the ground. "Luckily, I am a genius. Based on their external appearance of age, optimal training conditions, minimal amount of time needed to alter the patterns of a human brain, and the minimal time needed for physical development to make sure they could optimize training, then the ideal situtation, assuming that these children are only twelve years old, is to start four years ago. But since I don't depend on these people to be optimal, I'm going to set it at five years. I really don't enjoy the idea of reducing these kids to the mentality of seven year olds, but I don't really have a choice. If I don't do it this way, it could take the rest of their lives to get over what's happened to them. And I doubt any government will take them in to mentally deprogram them. This is all I can do. I hope it's enough."

Washu set the small the device in what seemed to be the middle of the room. She then grasped it with her thumb and forefinger, and pressed down a bit until it clicked. After that, she quickly rose from it, turned to the others, and walked toward them. She extended her arms and quickly shooed them toward the door. "Now, both of you are going to want to close your eyes and not look anywhere near the device."

Kohaku immediately did as he was told. Inuyasha frowned a moment, but rather than risk the crazy witch doing something else to him, he obeyed and closed his eyes. Washu continued to shoo them until they were at the door, and then left them there. She quickly let off, turned, and ran back to the center of the room. Once there, she held up her arms in an enthusiastic manner and called out to the boys. "Hey everyone! Look at me!"

The zombie-like boys did turn and look to her, if only because she was the closest person and the most likely threat at the time. Soon, they were all facing her body, and just in time. At that moment, the device suddenly evaporated. Rather, a chemical reaction took place in it that made it disintergrate. But the result was that a huge blinding blast came out that was targeted at just the right wavelength for just the right brain area. It erupted and shone in the eye sockets of every single boy staring at it in the room, conducting through the optic nerve into their brains. It traveled right to the designated area, and immediately fried the latest modified neurons within milliseconds. The light was blinding and filled the whole area, and even Kohaku and Inuyasha felt light pierce through their eyelids and into their skull, but because they weren't looking at it directly and unblinking they felt nothing other than mild discomfort.

At last it was done, and the light cleared as the last of the device burned away. The glare faded as quickly as it had come. The room was soon normal again. Sensing all was over, Inuyasha and Kohaku slowly opened their eyes. They looked around a bit, but then turned and looked back to Washu. The little girl was still standing, arms up from where she had given her yell. After that, however, they looked to the others.

The boys had changed. Their zombie-like looks were gone. Now, they looked confused, and some of them even seemed fearful. They looked around their cages in confusion, and at their clothes and their appearances. Some marveled at the size of their bodies and scars they had. After all, when they last looked at themselves, they thought that they were only seven years old. Now they had grown considerably. However, the goal seemed accomplished. None of them looked brainwashed anymore.

"Where...am I?"

"How'd I get here?"

"Where's my room?"

"Where's my mother?"

"Why am I dressed like this?"

"Why is my hair so long?"

"How'd I get so tall?"

"Who are you?"

Washu grinned at the sight. Apparently, it was a success. Another great work of the great Washu. She was happy to see it. "Success!" She cheered to no one in particular. The children were all staring around in confusion, while Kohaku and Inuyasha were turning around and looking puzzled as well, not seeming to realize how this had just happened. Inuyasha walked forward and looked into the cages. The youths looked back at him, their faces a bit confused in appearance, and they quickly looked a bit fearful at the fanged creature in front of him. Inuyasha said nothing in reply, but merely gave a bit of a frown to them.

"Well, whatever spell they were under seems to be broken."

Washu rolled her eyes a bit at this, once again loathing Inuyasha's lack of grasp for modern times.

Kohaku turned to the small scientist, looking a bit confused. "I don't understand. You weren't affected? You were looking up at it the whole time."

Washu turned to Kohaku with a smile. She raised her hand and pointed to her eye, tapping the rim of it. "Special contact lenses. I would have made some for you two, but I didn't need your confusion about the meaning of contact lenses..." She turned to Inuyasha for the next part. "...And I didn't need Rover complaining about having to put them in."

Inuyasha scowled in response.

Washu merely waved it off and indicated in front of her. "Alright. We're going to need to turn off the electricity and get the cage open, so we'll have to find the control area and then I'll get to work de-"

_SCURECK!_

The sound of ripping metal suddenly came out, and was instantly silenced. Washu and Kohaku turned to the source, and they saw one of the cages. Inuyasha still held the bars in his hand, and a few strips of twisted metal in front of the cell was all that was left of the guard area. The boy inside blinked in astonishment at the sight before him. Kohaku and Washu were astonished as well, seeing as how the dog-demon had just leapt right into that.

"Wow...I thought those bars were electrified." The young scientist remarked.

Inuyasha snorted. "I thought I felt a buzz when I grabbed it."

* * *

D was back on his feet again. However, he didn't charge straight back into battle right away. In all honesty, he was fearing that doing so was futile at this point. He could sense danger coming quickly, and he felt the presence of something getting stronger constantly. No doubt, this boy's power was growing incredibly now. They could already be too late. And so, he just stood there as he sensed the power growing stronger and stronger, while the Colonel stood before him and grinned wickedly at his own mounting force.

Presently, D began to hear something. The rig was beginning to shake. Some sort of breeze was beginning to move through the chamber, although nothing had turned on and no ducts were present. The shaking soon began to grow stronger, and in no time D himself had to work to keep himself balanced. The wind grew stronger as well, and soon his coat began to be whipped up and back. The force pulled on his hat and threatened to blow it off. He kept his sharp eyes focused on the Colonel throughout, and as he watched the wicked specimen of a man smile, he noticed that the room began to change around him. A perfect sphere-like crater began to be depressed beneath his legs. It continued to push out more and more as time went on, indicating some sort of invisible force around the Colonel growing larger and larger. However, the young man stayed fixed in place perfectly as the ground below him pressed out, revealing that he was hovering in mid-air.

The boy laughed wickedly. "Excellent! This is far better than my old powers used to be! Let's see how strong I'm getting now, eh?"

Immediately after saying that, D heard the sound of something large and strong tearing and ripping. It sounded like metal. He looked to the source, and moments later the entire metal podium abruptly ripped out of the floor. It immediately shot straight for the dhampire, at such great speeds it was as if it was fired from a cannon. The dhampire reacted, and grit his teeth slightly in straining himself, but then brought up his nodachi and swiped it at the oncoming obstacle. His sword cleanly sliced the object in half, and both pieces flew by either side of him. However, he kept his sword out and looked ahead to what else the Colonel would try.

The withered child laughed again, and then spread his arms out. In response, the entire room shuddered violently. D pitched forward a bit, but maintained his balance, and raised his nodachi for another attack. Instead, the boy clenched his fists, and then released them. In response, the small crater below him suddenly shot out far faster than before. It immediately blasted a sphere shape around the boy that matched the already spherical shape of the room. But it didn't stop there. It continued to shoot out and expand, and soon it smashed the walls around him in and made the sphere shaped area wider than before. It continued to grow larger and larger, expanding the sphere's area into the hallway, and quickly racing down it to blast both into the hall and into the upper and lower areas of the ship. And D saw it was headed right for him. He braced himself for impact, but it was coming too fast. The sphere, and the invisible force that made it, expanded in a flash right to his location and struck him head on.

Immediately, D felt as if a brick wall...no, a piece of highway...had been smashed into his body full force. His nose was crushed against his face, instantly broken, and his blade was nearly snapped in half as his arms were thrown aside. His entire body was smacked away like so much chaff, and he was soon flung across the room once again and once more into the doorway. This time, however, part of his body sailed out through the opening, while his head struck the door that was still intact. His head was wrenched painfully forward, and he felt a crack in his skull and his neck. Moments later, he slumped lifelessly to the ground again.

The Colonel laughed wickedly. "Come on, hunter! I'm barely pushing my old limit here!" With that, he halted the sphere, but something new happened instead. He turned his arms inward and raised them up next. With that, the conduits on the wall abruptly broke themselves off. They snapped around, and suddenly twisted over and bent their entire length off the wall. They twisted and contorted, taking the likeness of giant snakes. But instead of fangs, their ends snapped and crackled with electricity from broken wires. And now, they circled around and began to move toward D.

The dhampire had hardly rebuilt his busted body, but he had no time to waste. Summoning what strength he did have, he threw himself to one side as one of the sizzling ends shot forward straight for his face. It struck where his face was a moment later. He soon had to spin back, however, as another one shot for where his head now lay. He brought his legs up next, as a third cable struck for his body, and he twisted up just in time to avoid it. After that, however, he was ready to attempt to fight back. He quickly flipped his legs back forward, and arched his back in order spring back up onto his feet. He quickly sidestepped another cable that shot for his head, and twisted around to avoid another aimed for his side. He quickly ducked to avoid one that came up and swiped for his head, and then he finally retorted by swiping out his nodachi to cut through the cable. Although it was electrified and his sword was metal, the grip on his blade was covered with nonmetal. He felt no shock as he tore through it. He quickly swiveled to one side and sliced up to cut through another cable, and then crossed his blade back around to cut through another.

Frowning in response, the Colonel merely extended his arms again. Now, more conduits snapped free from the wall, and the ones that D had cut merely lengthened themselves and extended out once again. Soon they weren't attacking him one at a time, but in an en masse attack. They all flew at him at once, sparking menacingly and striking madly. D managed to dodge a few of them, and brought up his blade to cut off more. However, they struck too fast even for him. Once struck against his face, causing an electrical shock as well as a painful blow. He managed to retort by cutting this one off, but another one soon smacked him in the stomach, and two more hit against his head. Finally, three of them snapped forward at once and struck him in the face, shocking him with electricity at the same time. The jolt was so powerful that he went flying back again. D soon expected to smash into the wall yet again...

Only to find that such wasn't the case. Abruptly, he felt a powerful invisible force seize him. His entire body soon seemed to be in the grasp of a powerful force, and it halted him in mid-glide and held him above the ground. However, D immediately began to regret what was coming next. He had been in this position before when encountering partiuclarly vicious vampires...

"...Let's never team up again, D...assuming we survive this."

"...Not now."

Moments later, D was being flung violently in the ceiling. He was smashed into it so hard that the conduits and pipes were dented in. However, that wasn't enough. He was flung into the wall on the right next, then into the wall on the left, before he was driven down onto the ground as hard as possible. Not satisified with that, the Colonel did it again and again against the ground. He did it until he started hearing D's bones break, and then continued until he saw them poke from his skin again and a bloody pile began to form underneath him. Finally, after all that had happened, he dropped him down to the floor, in the indentation that he had formed with his own body. He lay there limply afterward, wallowing in his own material. However, even after that he kept moviing. He soon began to writhe on the ground, and started to move again. However, he felt terrible now. He desired blood more than ever at this point, and he felt his consciousness fading in and out. He was very dizzy now, and his body began to shake from exhaustion and strain.

However, he heard the Colonel's voice. It was fading in and out and hard to focus on, but he did hear him as he snickered at him again. "Well, I'll give this to you. You're long lived. Only that Spriggen lasted this long. Now that I have more power than before, I'm trying to think of a real good way to do you in. I heard that Tetsuo Shima managed to kill people by making their brains explode, but that's too easy and painless. I'd like to see if I can turn you inside out." The Colonel paused and laughed again at this. "What'll be really fun is to see if that kills an immortal like you, or if that just makes you painfully live out the rest of your short life. I really don't know...but let's find out."

D quivered and shook as his own blood dripped from his nose and mouth. He slowly raised his head and looked forward, but continued to shake and shudder. He couldn't get up. He couldn't resist. Even if he could, it wouldn't matter. It was impossible for any physical force to stand against this mental force. It was simply mind over matter that won out each time. D could only lay there, staring at his twisted happy face, waiting to see what he would do to him next and how this was going to feel...and wondering if he could survive another attack...

Abruptly, however, sparks of light erupted around the Colonel's body. They were just a few feet in front of him, but three distinctly went off. D recognized the sound they made as they did: gunshots. And it appeared as if they had just richocheted off an invisible wall. D propped his head up a bit more as his body continued to slowly heal, and turned around to look behind him at what was the source.

As he did, he saw Lupin, grinning and cocky as always, stepping through the opening in the chamber. He noticed that there was another right behind him, however. When Lupin came into the light, he managed to see the whole situation that he was in. It appeared that Lupin had several heavy belts and harnesses from the gunners attached to him, and that they were there in order to attach the body of Kei behind him. He recognized her scent immediately, even though she wasn't facing him. He saw that she had her legs cut off. But she was alive, and Lupin was carrying her along. That luger he had brought along with his barretta was out, and he had it aimed right for the withered child as he stepped out into the chamber.

"You keep talking like that, kid, and you won't be going to that ball game for your birthday." The thief mocked as he stepped inside. "Man, my grandpa warned me what ear infections could lead to, but this is ridiculous."

The Colonel looked up to him, and smiled after a pause. He gave out a chuckle at the sight. "Oh look. The idiot made it to the party. I was hoping I'd get to torture you as well. That's the best that you could bring? A gun?" He laughed cruely at the sight. "Please. If some stupid bullet could stop me, I never would have managed to get this far."

Lupin merely grinned wider in response. "I brought more than a gun, kiddo." With that, he turned around, swirling the woman on his back fully behind him so that she was now facing the Colonel. D looked up, and saw that it was indeed Kei. However, something else had happened to her. She seemed to be blinded as well. Yet she looked at the Colonel with bandaged eyes, and her face was turned into a dark frown. Her fists tightened. If she had still had eyes, she would have glared daggers at the boy.

"Remember me, a**hole?" The woman addressed.

But the Colonel wasn't frightened. Rather, he actually tipped his head back and laughed louder and longer than ever. Kei and Lupin stood their ground, and D stayed on the ground, while he did so. They didn't react but let him continue to laugh for a few moments. Finally, he looked back down and beamed his pitiless smile at them. "You? Some blinded cripple is supposed to make me scared, now that I have the power of Akira himself running through my veins?" He snorted and merely raised a hand at her. "Get out of my sight."

With that, Lupin's face suddenly turned to shock as he and Kei were both flung violently backward through the air by an invisible force. Both were thrown straight into the back wall of conduits, with enough force to smash them in somewhat. Lupin was smashed into them facefirst, and he only gave out a mild "ugh" before he was knocked unconscious by the force of the blow. He immediately slid to the ground in a limp heap, and Kei naturally followed suit as well. However, Lupin had taken most of the blow. She gave out an "oof" from the force of the blow, but once she slid to the ground, she was still conscious and motile. Immediately, she turned and looked to Lupin, her face turning to an expression of surprise and shock at what had happened to him. But that was only a moment. She quickly whirled back around and faced the Colonel, and grit her teeth again. Immediately, she reached to her side and yanked out a weapon, one of her stolen barrettas.

The Colonel merely laughed again. "Can you even shoot straight as you are now, you blind cripple?"

Kei merely glared back in reply. "I can see better than I ever have in my life now."

With that, the spy raised her gun, aimed it perfectly for the Colonel's head, and then fired a shot.

The boy merely gave out a mild "hmph" of disinterest. Three feet before even hitting his head, the bullet halted in mid-air. He didn't even raise a hand to it. "Haven't we been here before?" He remarked in a bored voice.

Kei didn't answer. Instead, she immediately threw the gun to one side. After that, she raised on of her hands and aimed it at the bullet. She grit her teeth, bit down, and seemed to somehow push. Abruptly, the bullet began to move forward again, although very slowly.

The Colonel's eyes opened a bit more to this. He turned to the bullet and saw it move, and immediately his smile turned to a frown. "Foolish woman." He snorted, and immediately he pushed back as well. The bullet soon halted again.

Kei grit her teeth a bit harder, however, and tightened her arm. She pushed harder at the bullet again. She had to focus for a little while to overcome the power, but overcome it she did. Soon, the bullet began to move forward again.

The Colonel's frown intensified. "You idiot." He scowled, as he grit his own teeth and pushed back harder, stopping it again. "You're dealing with the power of a god. You can't possibly outdo me."

A wind began to pick up in the room between the two forces. Kei's hair began to be blown back, as an invisible force pushed against her. Her arm bent back a bit, as if something was pushing against her whole body and not just the bullet. But she continued to grit her teeth, and straightened her arm out again. Now, a wind pushed against the Colonel, and blew him back as the bullet began to quiver. He grit his teeth harder, his look turning to anger, and he pushed back. The coils in the back of his head began to shake and pulsate a little. The wind picked up around Kei, blowing harder and stronger than ever. It seemed to push against her skin, adding to the strain even more. Her arms buckled and were pushed back. However, the woman refused to give up. She brought up her arm and braced her first arm, and pushed back stronger than before.

"You imbecile!" The boy hissed, and immediately he planted his feet, balled his hands into fists, closed his lips, and pushed back harder than ever. He wasn't straining that much, but the bullet began to quiver more than ever now. The wind whipped up around him again from the force. The coils in the back of his head pulsated faster and faster. They began to turn around in his head, as if they were trying to drill their way out. They had been in balance before, and they had stabilized throughout the battle. However, they were now being strained. They hadn't actually had to oppose another mental force. And as a result, they were being taxed beyond their normal performance capability. And so they continued to thrash around and beat, even though the boy himself looked unchanged. As for Kei, she began to grunt and strain under the force. She continued to brace her arm, but she was quivering now. Her veins began to bulge. Her muscles swelled. Sweat mounted on her brow and began to drip off. She put everything she had into it. Her headache surged forward like an electric bolt frying through her body. She felt dizzy and sick all over. Her stomach turned into knots. Her dizziness went from normal to painful. She wanted to vomit. Blood began to drip from her nose...followed by her ears. She felt her body about to rip apart. But she wouldn't stop. She continued to push onward, even as it seemed to be killing her...

Just as it seemed she would break, something suddenly happened. Abruptly, the coils in the back of the Colonel's neck snapped. They flew off like steam hoses that had burst. Abruptly, they flew off and began to spiral wildly out of control behind him, spraying cerebrospinal fluid in the air like it was so much oil from an old engine. Abruptly, the Colonel's eyes bulged. His throat gurgled. He pitched forward as his face strained and his skin tightened, making him look like he was in terrible pain and tension. As he did, his mental power suddenly broke. In a flash, like a dam that had just cracked and let long-held-back water come through, the bullet suddenly shot forward as Kei gasped in relief. But she no longer had the focus to control it. She couldn't direct it properly. Instead, the bullet shot forward and tore through the top of the Colonel's cap instead. The hat was immediately torn down the middle, and was ripped right off the Colonel's head by the force of the shot. Moments later, the ripped piece of cloth clattered to the ground.

The Colonel bent over and began to gasp. But as for Kei, she was finished. Her body was now soaked with sweat and dripping blood. She collapsed and faltered back against the fallen Lupin. There, she gasped for air, as her senses were swallowed up into the black pain of her tremendous headache. The room and everything else around her vanished as her throbbing pain shot through her head, neck, back, and to the rest of her system. She couldn't even move anymore. Her power was totally spent. She couldn't do anything else unless she could rest a moment. And unfortunately, D realized as he lay on the ground, struggling to piece his own body back together, that was much longer than the Colonel needed.

The withered boy soon straightened himself up, wobbling a bit as he did so. He glared out angrily at the fallen Kei, his teeth grit in fury and anger. "You bitch!" He yelled at her. "How did you do that? Your power is pathetic compared to mine! I'm supposed to have the power of Akira!" The boy froze and panted at that for a while. His face was tight with rage now. His body quivered with pain and anger. D could understand his frustration. He had expected to be a god at this point, but he was still mortal quite obviously. He wasn't above pain, and he was restrained to his decrepit body. He panted and gasped a bit longer, before he finally took in a deep breath and stopped himself. He straightened up again...and then, to D's displeasure, he merely smiled in that sadistic way and laughed a bit again.

"Well, that's no matter." He confidently replied. "All this means is that I have a bit further to go." With that, he looked back down to the ruined ground around him. It was wrecked and smashed at this point, but something was still intact. The hypoderm and one of the Akira samples. He smiled at this, and extended his hands out to them. In response, both items flew up, one into either hand. Once he had them, he readily began to load the sample. "I'm strong now. After this injection, I'll be able to manipulate my own body's evolution. Then I'll be able to regenerate from this withered state...and eventually transcend physical form all together. You've only put off your deaths by a few minutes...maybe less." The gun was reloaded at this point, and the Colonel lifted it and twisted it around, pointing it into the back of his head. He flashed his two colored eyes at them all and grinned wickedly.

"Now you'll truly get to see the rebirth of Akira's power. Enjoy the show. It's the last one you'll see before I erase you from existence."

With that, he injected the pistol once again and pressed the trigger. A hiss of steam went out as the chamber emptied into his body. Immediately, his face bulged and strained again, and his teeth clenched hard. His eyes bulged, and he faltered for a moment. He bent over and almost fell off his feet. Kei was slowly regaining her strength, and she opened her eyes to see the change in situation. Immediately, her eyes filled with fear and desperation. It was over now. With this injection, it was finished. They had failed...

However, D didn't agree.

In fact, right when this happened, he released his stored strength once again. He threw himself to his feet once more, and brandished his nodachi in front of him. Dizzy and weak as he felt, he braced himself for one more attack. "...You've just made a fatal mistake." He simply addressed.

The Colonel, despite his straining and struggling, managed to look to the hunter, and grinned his clenched teeth. "Oh...really...? What...would that be?"

"I noticed something." D responded simply. "When you're in pain...you lose control of your power."

The Colonel's eyes immediately widened, but not from pain. He realized that truth at the same moment...the same weakness that the agent had exploited.

Immediately, the youth raised his hand and aimed for D. At the same time, the hunter took off and ran straight for him. His sword was put at the ready, and aimed straight for the boy's heart. The Colonel struggled to focus, and soon he threw out a blast of psychic power at the hunter. D waved down a bit, but he didn't stop. The Colonel grunted, but threw another wave. D was pushed a bit to one side, but he managed to bring up his weapon and level it again. The Colonel gave out a cry next, as the cords on the back of his head suddenly flung up and began to wildly spray fluid again. He held up his other hand, as his legs shook and began to bend down. But D was soon thrown this way and that, as wave after wave pummeled him. It shoved his sword one way and another, making it almost impossible to keep it steady. But the hunter kept pushing forward. The waves got stronger and stronger, and he felt them begin to push harder against him and hurt. But he wouldn't stop. The Colonel's focus finally began to return, and he aimed toward the hunter to fire off a stronger blow than before. He began to push just as the hunter finally reached him...

In one last simultaneous strike, the Colonel's power connected. D's body was suddenly ripped out of the air and thrown backward. However, it was too late. At just the same moment, he drove forward, and his atom edged nodachi was driven forward into the Colonel's flesh. It was deflected and missed the heart, but it was only swung down a little. The steel slid into the gut of the withered child and tore right through, stabbing right through the other side.

D was flung back across the room, but not into a wall. The power released him as pain was driven into the Colonel, and the boy faltered again. His arms dropped and his concentration was broken. Hence, the dhampire fell to the ground, but did not get smashed against it as before. Nevertheless, the pain was still great, and he was already so battered and exhausted that he couldn't take even a mild blow. He collapsed to the ground and struggled to keep from crying out.

The Colonel stumbled on the floor, crying out in agony. He began to curse and swear, for every move he made only shifted the giant sword that was now protruding from his body. Yet somehow, he was still alive. Blood began to drip from his mouth, and his face became tight with more pain than ever. But he did recover. He turned and looked back out to the group around him, and grit his blood-stained teeth in rage.

"You bastard..." He hissed. However, he managed a half smile. He struggled to breathe now, being ragged and slow. But he was still alive. "It was no good though... All you managed to do was make me angrier...and now you've got nothing left."

D managed to roll his head back up at that. He grunted a bit in pain, but not much. He looked up and into the Colonel's eyes. His expression was without fear or anger. He simply stared coldly back into the Colonel's eyes.

"...I have one thing."

_Tink...titterrrrr..._

The Colonel looked back into D's eyes for a moment, but stopped when he heard the sound. He looked down to the source, and saw the end of D's handle. Rather, he saw something that just fell off of it, and was now bouncing along the ground and rolling toward his feet.

A small pill-shaped object...that was blinking a red light.

The Colonel's eyes expanded one more time, as he looked up to D. He had no idea what this meant, or what that capsule was going to do. However, he wasted no time. He was still in pain, but he wasn't going to stand for this. He quickly looked back down to the capsule and aimed his hand at it.

D saw this, and quickly snapped his head to the side. "Kei...push it back at him."

The woman grit her teeth in pain and panted. "I...I can't..."

The Colonel grit his own teeth, and focused as hard as he could manage on the device. He was wracked with pain now, and barely able to focus. But somehow, he was able to concentrate some of his growing power on it. It began to quiver and shift.

"Kei, if that device gets pushed back at us..." D warned.

"I'm...out of power..."

"Just one more push..."

The device began to roll slightly now. The Colonel grunted, struggling to move it. D cursed inwardly that the damn ship hadn't fired yet. There wasn't much time now. The device began to move back toward them.

"Kei..." D spoke a bit more urgently.

The Colonel looked up at this, as he struggled to focus. His power wasn't working. He was in too much pain. It made him fly into anger. Yet suddenly, he noticed something else. Something registered in his memory that he had uncovered. As he watched the woman struggled, wallowing in her own pain and injuries, he realized there was still a way out of this. D's own memory soon snapped to attention as he heard the words begin to spill out of the bloody mouth of the withered madman.

"It...was you...who broke..."

The hunter looked up in a flash. Immediately, he remembered the letter. He saw what he was trying to do...take away their last shot at victory. Kei couldn't respond. She couldn't fight back against this. He could only pray she was struggling to move it back. Ot this would be for nothing.

Quickly, he grunted and moved his hand to his glove, and with erratic quick movements he grabbed his glove on his hand.

"My...Meisson..."

With one last flurry of effort, D managed to seize his glove, and rip it off. The left hand was immediately exposed, and without hesitation he raised his arm and aimed it straight for the Colonel. Moments later, the thing opened its mouth and began to inhale once again. The wind tunnel was soon being blown over the Colonel's body. But this time, it wasn't inhaling bullets or enemies...but D's own blade. In a rip of flesh and blood, D's huge nodachi came out of the Colonel and shot right back to D's open palm. More blood flew everywhere as the weapon went flying from his body and back to its owner, and the Colonel was cut off in mid-sentence. His kill command was abruptly swallowed up in a gurgle of pain as the weapon came out, his agony drowning out his words.

At that moment, Kei finally managed to get a grasp on her power. She saw the small device, and she grasped it with her mind. It took her only a moment to find her desired source and destination, and she quickly acted on it. In a flash, the capsule shot off the ground, and sailed straight into the open wound within the Colonel.

"Just like Neo Tokyo..." The agent murmured...before finally passing out from exhaustion.

The Colonel only had a chance to gag once from the capsule flying into his wound, before it struck at long last. Abruptly, the entire room glowed red with heat. It started off small, but within less than a second it burned bright and fierce. The air wavered. The metal overhead began to shine and twist, melting under the force of the sudden energy that began to pump through it. The Colonel turned his head up to the sky, looking to see what was going on. But that was all he had time for...before the entire ceiling was melted and then vaporized as the massive shot tore through it.

A pure, focused, beam of red energy erupted through the ceiling, gaping out a massive entrance wound that plowed through every floor of the oil rig right down to this floor. It melted the area around it for a hundred foot diameter on the top layer, but was focused down to only the small area the Colonel contained once it reached this floor. The beam struck him head on, and immediately erupted. In a flash of brilliant light as bright as the sun, a huge red explosion went off. The sound of the eruption was silent at first, for the force whipped by so strong and fast that it transcended the sound barrier. But as the shockwave tore past the three fallen group members, the sound of the blast quickly flew in behind it. The force of the eruption threw the three away from the site, shoving them back until they hit the wall, and then pushed against them harder afterward. The eruption was deafening, like no other explosion sound on Earth. It pierced not only the ear drum but the body itself, reverberating through one's own being. It was impossible to see, hear, or feel anything except the terrible explosion. It was because of all this that no one could hear the final scream of the Colonel, or watch as his withered body was burnt away. The small amount of mental power he had managed was obliterated, easily overwhelmed by the shot. And soon, there was nothing left.

The blast didn't last long. The vibrations stopped. The shockwave steadied. The force that pushed the three group members back ceased, and they rolled forward and came to a rest. The unearthly sound faded, and slowly the sound of a passing breeze filled it in instead. D himself lay down on his side for a few moments, unable to move and exhuasted from everything that had happened. However, he breathed slowly and regained his bearings. After a few minutes of rest, he was able to open his eyes at long last, and see what had happened.

The sphere-shaped area was still in the room, but it had changed. It was bigger now, and was melted out rather than pushed out, as the Colonel had with his own mental power. The blast had vaporized the metal to expand the sphere. The top of the sphere was open and clear, showing where the blast had cut through the rig and struck the area in the center. Overhead, the floors were vaporized in a larger and larger sweep all the way up to the top of the rig. The sun was beaming down in the clear sky, and a gentle sea breeze wafted through the air and into the room. It washed away the metal and blood smell and gave a refreshing scent instead. Silence reigned through the area. Only the sounds of a few seagulls went by. D looked up, and sure enough he saw a few go by. And far above that, hovering high in the sky, he saw a small black glittering dot: Ryo-Ohki.

D exhaled a long breath of air, and let his head fall down again. He rested and thought not of getting up again for a good long time. It was over at long last.

"Man...I'm out for a few minutes..." The voice of Lupin slowly moaned just as D started closing his eyes. "You guys are blowing up the place..."

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NOTE: If you don't know yet, Kohaku is none other than the Kohaku River Spirit from Spirited Away.


	12. Tying Off the Ends

Sigh... fanfiction dot net is being stupid again. I've tried four times now to center the titles, and every time I do, they come back not centered after I hit "Save".

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**Chapter Twelve**

_March 27, 2015 - Ten Miles Outside of Tokyo, Japan_

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Kei stirred slightly from her position. She didn't even notice that the moment she did, fields were lowered around her. Suspensions vanished, and her body was slowly lowered down to the ground. A powerful field kept her body suspended until it was slowly lowered to the ground, and was it seemlessly transitioned to the floor once she rested. She turned her head slightly and took in a deep breath. As she did, her consciousness returned. She became self aware of her body and her status. She soon noticed that her body was free from pain. Her brain felt regular again, and her body felt regular. She wasn't tired anymore. In fact, she felt refreshed and rejuvenated. She hadn't felt this good in a long time. For a moment, it felt as if all the events that had happened...the group...the Budapest mission...the Panama encounter...the rig...all of it was a dream. She turned a bit more, and then opened her eyes.

A smooth gleaming metal surface was overheard. There was a glow of light shining into the room she was in, which Kei recognized as sunlight. So there was a window or an opening here. She paused a moment, taking this in. She realized that she was on the ground, laying on her back... And this was the Ryo-Ohki. She remembered its ceiling and surroundings. That meant...it wasn't a dream. But then, she realized something else, which was far more shocking. If it wasn't a dream...how could she see? Her eyes were intact, weren't they? As if to confirm it, she raised her hands up to her own face, until to find no trace of the grotesque scars or drills that had been made into it. Her eyes were both there.

Immediately, the woman leaned up and looked down. She soon received another pleasant surprise. Both of her legs were there. There wasn't even a trace of a scar. She blinked in astonishment, amazed at the sight. She reached over and felt them, again unable to believe that they were real. But they were solid and there, and she could feel them as she touched them. Soon, however, she heard footsteps. She turned and looked to the source, and saw the familiar small figure of Washu walking across the deck and moving to her. Her arms were folded behind her, and she had a big smile on her face.

"Feeling better?" She asked her. "Legs and eyes are easy to regenerate, at least in a human species...or even a Jurai/human for that matter. I did that with a friend of mine a while back. So this is nothing new."

Kei shook her head, and then raised it up. A bit of confusion was on her face, but that soon vanished and turned to concern. "What happened? Is the Colonel dead?"

"...And Akira with him."

Both Kei and Washu turned to see who had spoken. Their eyes soon rested on D. He looked much better now. He was cool and calm again, and his movements were smooth and controlled. His clothing had been repaired, and he didn't have a scratch on him. Washu smiled on seeing him enter.

"Ah! Looks like you're up and running again too!" She greeted. "How'd you like the taste of that cloned blood I made for you?"

D was silent in response. It did have the taste of something...artificial...and as such it was loathesome to a vampire's appetite. But it did do the job of healing him. And only real human blood would have revitalized him at that point, which was a tragedy. Dhampires only remained dhampires until the day they fed on genuine human blood. Then they turned completely. But there was no way around it then. He had lost far too much over the past few days. And he had needed it. Getting Washu to "make" him some was the only way to do it safely. That still didn't mean he wanted to talk about it.

Abruptly, something caught Kei's eye. She turned her head around to the viewing area, which was the source of the sunlight in the chamber. She soon gaped in surprise at what she saw. Dancing through the sky gracefully and waving a strange course right for the ship was a long, white, serpentine being. To her surprise, it appeared to be a white Chinese dragon, if such things were even supposed to exist. She was overwhelmed at the sight, as she saw it turn and move beneath the craft, and then vanish from view. Still stunned, she turned her head back to Washu and gestured outside. "There's...there's..." She began to remark.

Washu merely smiled again. "Oh, I see you've spotted the latest member of our little group. I think he fills out Genma's old position of immortal rather nicely...although he's technically only immortal to death by age..."

Kei abruptly felt the ship shake slightly. She looked around in surprise at this, and quickly got to her feet. It felt as if something had landed on it...obviously that white dragon. She turned and looked back to the way that D and Washu had come in, and watched and waited. A few minutes went by, as she heard a deal of rumaging and movement down below. However, in the end, more figures came out and walked into the chamber where she stood. Lupin strolled in like he was God's gift to women, as usual, looking carefree and grinning in a new suit. Miyu quietly followed behind him, hands folded in front of her and carrying her usual dark aura around her. Lastly, a boy with stunning, wise-looking blue eyes and a sort of "Prince Valiant" type of brown haircut walked in behind the others. He had dressed himself in white and blue now, in attire that was distinctly from a much earlier time in Japanese history. However, he seemed simple and mannerly enough...and Kei never realized that this boy was the same one who had assaulted her not long ago.

"The last of the children have been returned to their proper cities." Kohaku announced as he walked into the room.

Kei looked around at the group for a moment. In the end, however, she looked a little sad. "...So, Inuyasha didn't make it?"

Lupin merely grinned and tsked at her. "Hardly. The furry oaf bailed out the moment we finished at the rig. Said something about being tired of running around with us freaks. You know, coming from a guy with ears on top of his head instead of on the side who has fleas and carries a giant monster tooth for a sword, that really hurts my feelings..."

"Oh well. He helped us out, anyway." Washu responded with a shrug. "I do wish I could have given him a Milk Bone for being such a good doggie, but whatever. It probably isn't good for the space-time continuum for him to be gone out of his time for that long anyway. I've got to get a look at those 'time trees' though... All my current time machines are bulky and energy inefficient."

D didn't answer after hearing this. When no one else spoke up, however, Lupin took in a deep breath. He let the silence hang a moment longer, and let them all look around and get a good look at one another. Finally, he spoke again.

"Well, guess we go our separate ways now."

The others looked around a bit more uneasily at that. Another silence lasted in the room. So...it was really it. The journey was over, and they realized that what Lupin had said was right. It was time for all of them to go. After all that had happened, it finally came to this moment. Strangely, it didn't feel that good. For all their bickering and complaining, they had helped each other out. They had worked together, and they had managed to succeed in spite of everything else. And though there may not have been any prize or award for any of this...they had managed to do a great thing. There was no denying that. And also, despite all of their fighting...they had come out of it with friends.

D believed even Inuyasha felt that same way, despite running off the moment that the job was done. So much, in fact...that he almost regretted not telling Inuyasha about his own disastrous future. He had helped him on the highway, after all. Yet in the end, he supposed it was better that he found out for himself. As for the others, he supposed he would just have to sever his mental ties once again. In his line of work, and considering the fact that he was immortal...he didn't allow himself to make friends with anyone. He and Miyu shared that common bond. Eventually, anyone that they tried to attach themselves to would die. He couldn't afford that kind of bond, and long ago he had sworn off any such bonds. To him...this would just be one more parting.

...But it would be harder than others.

"Well, I suppose I'll leave here." Kohaku spoke up at last. With that, he began to turn back the way he came. "I have an old friend I need to find. This place is just as good as any to start looking."

Washu turned to him immediately with a smile, and gave him a wave. "Hey, thanks a lot for all your help again."

Kohaku turned back, smiled a bit, and snorted a laugh. "My help? Thanks again for all of _your_ help. If it wasn't for you, I'd be a slave again." He paused for a moment after that, and looked to the ground. But then he looked up and back and spoke again. "...And if you ever see that Inuyasha guy again...tell him thanks. He did the right thing attacking me like that."

The scientist grinned in reply. "Oh, I'll find some way to get him the message."

The boy spirit smiled and nodded again, giving the group one last look from his strange blue eyes. But then, he turned and walked away, back the way he had come. Soon, he turned a corner, and vanished from sight.

Kei sighed a bit. She raised a hand to her brow and rubbed it. "Well...guess I might as well get out here."

Lupin turned to Kei in surprise at that. "Really? Aren't you a fugitive of the Japanese government?"

The woman sighed again in response and shrugged. "I'm an international fugitive. Besides, I need to get my husband."

Lupin paused for a moment in response to that. But then, he raised a hand and adjusted his tie slightly. He grinned a bit and stepped forward. "You know...I could help you out with that. I've broken into and out of prison several times now, including every maximum security facility. It'll be a cinch if we work together."

Kei turned and gave him another sour look. She glared hard at him for a moment, while he innocently grinned in response. "...You _are_ as bad as him. You just don't know when to quit, do you?"

The thief could only grin and shrug in response. "I'm just persistent. Besides, after I help you out, maybe you can scratch my back by helping me break my gang out."

Kei crossed her arms and leveled a glare at him.

"Hey..." Lupin pressed further, with a tone that exuded "come on". "If it doesn't work, I'll buy you dinner."

The woman only glared harder and more icily at Lupin in response to that. Still not getting the hint, the rogue merely kept grinning and waiting for her answer. She looked for a few moments more, but finally sighed and rolled her eyes. "...Alright. But you better come through this time. And if I have to act like some floozy this time around..."

Lupin quickly put his hands up, his crafy grin growing, and shook his head. "Oh no...no, we'll do the laundry bit this time. No problem."

Kei sighed again at this. It seemed she couldn't believe what she was doing. But in the end, she merely shook her head and lowered it again. Lupin looked as eager as a little kid, and he immediately began to head for the rear exit. As for Kei, she paused for a moment longer, and then turned and looked back to who was left in the chamber. Her eyes looked around a bit, before looking up to D. The dhampire said nothing in response. He simply looked back at her with his normal cold glare, his eyes peering out from beneath his wide brimmed hat.

"...I guess this is it."

"...Yes." D responded after a brief pause. The two stood a bit longer and looked to one another.

"So what will you do?"

"Same thing I always do." D simply replied. "Look for the next target. I actually thought you'd be going after Gendo."

Kei shook her head. "No. I don't want to risk getting caught again. They did it once. Besides...they're probably waiting for me to make a move on Kaneda, assuming they know I'm still alive."

D paused in response to this. "...I'd be dead if it wasn't for you."

Kei hesitated, but then shrugged. "Same here."

The two paused one more time, looking at each other. Neither of them said a word, or betrayed any emotion. They merely looked into each other's eyes and focused for a long while. Lupin stopped and turned to look. Miyu sighed and thought something about chivalry, but said nothing else. At last, Kei held up a hand and waved. "...Later." With that, she turned and began to walk out, not looking back again. Lupin looked to her, however, and then looked back to D. He seemed to be wondering if something was going on. But after looking between the two for a moment, he finally turned and began to walk out. However, he stopped on the way out, and turned and looked back to the vampire hunter. He smiled at him and gave him a wave as well.

"Lots of luck on those bloodsuckers, Dee-Dee. Let's do this again some time, but don't call me. I'll call you."

With that, the rogue turned and walked away as well, tagging along...perhaps too closely...behind Kei. They soon turned the corner, and their footsteps faded to signify that they were gone as well.

The remaining members turned and looked to each other. All that were left was Washu, D, and Miyu now. The vampire princess readily turned to D, and did not look away from him. The vampire hunter didn't look back right away, but he could feel her gaze focusing on him. Without turning, and still standing straight and tall, he finally spoke out to her again.

"...You're not as talkative as normal today."

The girl paused for a moment, but then spoke coldly and firmly. "...I'd like to see you privately."

D turned and looked back to her for a moment. After staring a second, however, he gave a nod. He turned and looked up to Washu. The little scientist looked back with a frown in reply, but then merely sighed and threw up her arms in an exaggerated sigh. She muttered something about this being her ship and threatening to force them out, but she said nothing aloud. She turned to a different hallway and walked away. Soon, he heard her footsteps fade as well. Only the two vampires were left in the room. They both stood silently for a moment more. Miyu continued to stare at D. D continued to look out and didn't meet her gaze. However, once things were quiet, he looked back and stared back in her eyes.

"How's your weapon?" She asked at length, turning and beginning to walk in front of the hunter.

D responded by brushing away his coat and pulling out his sword...or what was left of it. Half of the blade had been melted and vaporized. Apparently, D had dropped it when the blast threw him back, and he had been unable to salvage it all together. Miyu chuckled a bit at the sight, but gave only a weak smile. She pointed to the ruined nodachi. "You should talk to that scientist. She says she can fix it."

"Thanks, but no thanks." D calmly answered. "I'd rather have it hand-repaired. I know just the place in Tokyo."

Miyu smiled at last. "You are old fashioned." She gave a pause for a moment, but then her smile faltered. She gave pause for a few moments before looking down to the ground and speaking again.

"...How much do you typically charge, hunter?"

D hesitated before answering that, but showed no change of emotion. "...Depends on the job and how my client can pay."

Miyu didn't answer. She paused for a moment longer. Then she took a few steps forward. On doing so, she lowered her hand down into her kimono. Moment later, she emerged clenching something in her fist. She extended her hand out to D, who hesitated a moment but then reached out, realizing she was giving him something. He opened his gloved hand, and she promptly dumped her contents into his. When she pulled her hand back, he looked over and saw that she had laid a handful of diamonds into his hand.

"That's all I have." The vampire princess simply stated.

"Wow...this is strange, D. I never thought she'd be one who'd hire you. Heh...you must have made some kind of impression."

D didn't voice any of these questions from his hand. Instead, he simply looked back to Miyu. "...Who?"

Miyu glared back at him, and turned back into her old cold self a moment. Her mouth tightened into a half frown...but her eyes remained steadfast. "...Isn't it obvious?" She finally asked. He detected a quiver on her voice as she said it.

"...Whoa...hold on a moment..."

D clenched his fist hard to shut up the face. He didn't want his comments at this time. It looked back to Miyu, but she didn't change. A sadness was in her eyes. She breathed in slow and deep, and shook a little. But she stayed standing and didn't back down. Now she struggled to look as fierce and strong as she always had.

D looked back at her in silence for a while, but finally spoke. "...I don't assist suicide. I never have."

"This isn't suicide. It's another job." Miyu responded, nearly snapping back. "You've been hired to kill a vampire. Here's your target. You said you only kill targets that you're hired for. Consider yourself hired. Here I am."

"Why?" D responded, just as quickly.

"Because my job was to destroy the Shinma, and now my job is complete." She simply answered. "And now, after this mission, I have nothing. I have no family. No friends. No purpose in life. But I will continue to linger on, and I will continue to feed for the rest of eternity. I don't want that. I don't want to be here from one century to the next, never dying, but always needing to feed. I may not like humans, but I do defend them. I've destroyed their enemies and those that prey on them. Now only I remain. But I will not destroy myself. That is why I hired you."

"Do you truly hate this world so much?" D simply answered. "Is there nothing here you'd like to stay for?"

"Don't give me that sentimental prevention patter." Miyu harshly retorted, her voice growing sharper and stronger. "You know full well that you would do the same thing if our roles were reversed. If all vampires were dead, what would you have? What do you have? That thing in your hand? Your nodachi? Vampires don't just create their own kind because they want to propagate their species and feed. They do it because they want companionship. They create this society around themselves because they have no one else. The last of those I loved died yesterday like everyone else I've ever loved...dying for my sake. Now I desperately want to see them again. I want to see my mother again after countless lifetimes."

"And you truly think you can see her again, with the life that you had?"

Miyu paused at this. Her throat tightened, and she softened a little. "I don't know." She stated. She hesitated again, and her voice softened once more. Again...for a moment, she seemed not like an ancient creature or a foul monster...but again like a small child. Once more, she seemed innocent and pure. What was left of her humanity arose once more as she bowed her head. Her voice became soft, no longer demanding but quiet. "But I know that as I am...I have a long life of preying on many more humans that I don't want. I have an eternity of destroying lives ahead of me to sustain my own purposeless existence. I will never meld with either the vampires or men, and there is nothing more for me."

D didn't respond. He looked down on Miyu and did not move. He gave no inclination one way or another. Miyu's face turned down more. She stepped forward toward the dhampire, and looked up to him again. Her eyes had changed now, turning to pleading instead.

"I never asked anything from anyone, D. But I'll ask this." She spoke up, her voice starting to slip into a beg. "And I'm asking you for one simple reason: I respect you. I respect who you are and what you stand for. You're the only one who I want to do this. You're the only one I would ask for this. I want it to be you rather than any other. I want it to be you...because you can respect this. You know."

D again stayed silent. However, something within him did change. In truth, he didn't want to do this. It was against his principles. And he had potential victims beg him for death before. Each time he had refused. Even though he was being hired now, he didn't want to do it. It was wrong. For him to think of Miyu as a simple killer, as she wanted him to, would be to acknowledge his own dark side. It didn't matter whether or not she was. What was in her was in him. They were closer than he would admit to himself. He was close to all those he hunted even if he didn't even know their names. He didn't want to acknowledge that now or ever.

And yet...what she said was true. The right thing might be to do this now. She would only continue to feed. And she was right. There was nothing else for her, just as one day when the last vampire died there would be nothing left for him. She would never bond to humanity. She envied what she could not have from them and so she made them suffer...and yet she admired so much what they had that she could not kill them. She had defended them for so long as a result. But now, that time was over. Now she would bring more empty lives and joyless times to all she encountered. She would become a plague on the world just as the other Shinma had been. There was nothing left to balance out her jealousy now. One day, she might be ruled by it. She might one day hate humanity so much that she decided to intentionally prey on them. Then she would destroy many lives and lose what little humanity that she had left. He knew full well she couldn't have that. He knew that her mother never wanted that. If that came to pass, then she would truly lose become a monster. She saw this...and feared it. But both she and D knew it was inevitable. Yet she had come to him...which meant this was the only way she could see to die with dignity.

Finally, D did react. He bowed his head slightly as well, and then reached back inside his coat. Slowly, he reached in and grasped the handle of the nodachi, and then drew it out. It was broken, but against one who wasn't going to struggle, it was still potent and lethal. He drew it out and held it before him, pausing again for a moment. Stabbing through the heart would be too painful. It would be better to go for the head. The edge of the blade was still intact and more than sharp enough. He looked up again, and looked to the vampire princess. Strangely...he felt a small hint of dismay inside him...to see that she was standing straight, tall, and staring right at him. She showed no fear, but rather accepted her fate with wide open eyes and an unchanging expression.

"...Until we meet again, D."

The hunter paused in response to this, but then gave a small nod. "...Until we meet again."

With that, he brought the sword down, never changing his expression.

* * *

_March 27, 2015 - Back Alley, Downtown Tokyo, Japan_

* * *

It was late night when D got to this part of the city. It was quite a long walk, even for a dhampire. And he had stopped frequently during the day to get out of the sun, which he had spent far too much time with, and to look for a new motorcycle. It was a little strange getting back into the swing of things, after all that had gone on. This morning had been difficult as well. Much of what had happened still dwelled on his mind. He was having a hard time stilling himself and focusing. However, as night came on, he had to admit that he could think much more clearly. He felt more at ease and focused. So it was a fitting time that at this hour he should find himself here.

Not many people came to this back part of town. The roads were actually in disrepair here, cracked and bulging somewhat. The buildings were old, many of them boarded up and closed down. One was actually tilting and leaning a bit from an old earthquake, but none had bothered to correct its damage. There were few people on this side of town as well. There was little light. All but one or two street lights were out, and the only real illumination came from what few windows that weren't boarded up gave off a soft glow. The few residents that were on this side of town were ragged and old looking, keeping themselves concealed in lots of clothing, and wandered in and out of the dim lights. But around here, it was best not to get too friendly...for one couldn't guarantee that all of the people in the area were in fact human. It was in areas like this that the dhampire was no longer an outcast or freak...but among the regular members of society. This was one of the last refuges for his kind...at least in this point in history. There was no guarantee that things might not turn bad once again.

What struck D in particular as he slowly walked along the street was one particular building. It was old and broken down like the rest, but it was functional. Red neon light shone through the other side of a barred and reinforced window. It was sandwiched in with the other buildings, looking like a worn out old store. But there was no indication of what they were selling here. All that was there was a small neon sign that read "open" in the window, despite being past midnight, and a large crucifix hanging from the doorway. A cross had less of an effect on a dhampire, and so D walked right up to the entrance of the door.

Once he was there, however, he sensed something. The alley was silent...seeming unnaturally silent even for this quiet part of town...and an unnaturally cool breeze was moving through it. He turned his head to either side at this, seeing if anyone...or anything...was following him. But he saw nothing. Only a bum was leaning against a wall on his right, wallowing in his own filth and drinking from a paper bag. He didn't even seem conscious of D. On his left, there was someone staggering down on alley...but he, she, or it didn't seem to be that interested in him. And so, he turned to the door, reached for the handle, and opened it up. Soon after, he strolled in himself, making sure to shut the door securely behind him.

D was greeted with a smell of must, age, and strange other scents on entering. The hairs on his own neck prickled, and his blood seemed to run faster and shallower than normal. A cold chill came over him, and he felt stiff. No doubt, that had to be something in here. There were plenty of anti-vampire charms in this building, and some were potent enough to effect him as well. However, being a hunter, it went with the job. He had been here before, and as he looked around he noticed it hadn't changed much. It looked like a step back in time to an old alchemy shop. Strange relics, plants, and bits of animals were hanging from ropes by the ceiling in long chains. Shelves and glass counters were stuffed to the point of overflowing with all manner of old items, some metal, some leather, some cloth, and some made of other body parts. They were stuffed so much and pushed so much in that they cramped out much of the room, pushing things in until one could be cramped if a crowd of people were to enter. D's hat struck several items hanging from the ceiling as he walked in. He had to push through two shelves loaded with foul smelling herbs as he entered. Against the wall, gleaming pieces of metal were hanging, mostly crosses and other sacred symbols. There were also bookshelves that were overflowing not only with old leather-bound books, but with scrolls and tomes and all sorts of other materials that looked ready to fall apart at the slightest touch. A few dim lights were slowly flickering in the one-room store. Red neon ones were near the entrance, but deeper into the shop there were green ones that were concealed behind piles of material that were all the way up to the ceiling, blocking them out. It was very dark in the chamber. Shadows were long and filled the walls and sides. One couldn't move around without passing in and out of shadow.

D stopped once he was far enough inside, and looked around the area. He felt an odd sensation in here, despite all the charms boggling his senses. He could feel something here...and it troubled him. It was strong...very strong. No regular run-of-the-mill creature gave off this kind of signature, especially if he could sense it through everything in the room. He gave a look around the room for signs of anything. He soon saw two people. One was the clerk behind the counter. He was a Japanese man himself, although quite old looking. Most of his teeth were rotted out. His skin was withered and yellow, barely stretching over his bony skull. And yet his body was large and obese, almost to the point of looking deformed. He wore old clothing as well, which was covered with dirt and grime. They consisted of a greasy wife beater, and a heavy heat apron. The other person was far more pleasant. Her clothing looked reasonably new, and had a blue and armored appearance to it. In fact, on looking a bit more closely, D recognized that it was the uniform of a police officer. And no run of the mill patrol cop either. It was for a more advanced branch. She had a sort of reddish blonde colored hair. However, that was all that D bothered to look at. After that, he turned and looked to the man at the counter. He walked forward to him, pushing the feeling out of his head for the moment. Once he reached the counter, he readily reached into his coat and pulled out the remains of his nodachi.

"...I need this reforged." He stated as he put the giant weapon on the table. "Blessed silver."

The man grinned wide at this, showing his rotten teeth and large gaps in his mouth. This seemed to please him. "Thirty-five million yen."

In response, D reached into his pocket silently. Moments later, his glove emerged and spread out handful of diamonds on the counter.

The man's grin intensified, but his tone turned critical. "Do I look like a pawn broker?"

"...If you don't want the job..." D simply responded, beginning to turn his hand over to take up the diamonds again.

However, the large man's hand shot out and seized D's, halting him from doing so. He grinned again at the dhampire, and then began to laugh. It was dry and booming, rather like some old fat human. But he did it anyway. As he was still laughing in D's face, he released his hand and took up the broken nodachi instead. Still laughing, he turned around and walked away from him, back to one of the shadows in the shop. When he got there, he pulled up a black curtain and walked inside. He soon vanished, and his laugh was first cut much softer, and then vanished as well.

D heard a sneeze behind him. The moment he did, he turned and looked. He was alone now with the police woman...or girl, it seemed more accurate. However, she had just sneezed. In fact, from her movements, it seemed as if she was having a bad allergic reaction to the material in the shop. She sniffled, and she raised a fist to her nose and rubbed it, obviously dealing with an itch. She raised her hand to her face next, rubbing her eyes. But as she finished itching and rubbing them, and lowered her hand back to her side to resume looking at the materials...D caught something. He caught a glimpse of her eyes.

They were bright red.

She was a vampire.

The hunter stood still a moment longer, and looked her over. She didn't seem to notice, but went back to her work. He wasn't sure who this person was, but he knew something clearly now. She was a vampire. Now that he knew it, he could smell her scent more strongly than ever. But she couldn't have been a vampire long. She wasn't aware of what this room was doing to her. If any of these charms were actually out and in front of her, she'd probably be dead or seriously hurt. And she wasn't a common ghoul either. She was acting rather like a regular full-fledged vampire. But she was young. He could tell. She smelled as if she was not much older than how she appeared now. That was odd. Obviously, an older vampire had made her recently. But he fully made her one of his kind, rather than a mildless slave. That meant this vampire either felt an attraction to her, or he had a conscience. He opted for the former...which was true in 99.9 of the cases. But in this particular situation...he wondered if the latter was true. One thing was certain. The strength he was sensing wasn't from her. Killing her wouldn't even be difficult. He guessed that her master was nearby...and that he was the one he sensed.

Well...there was one way to get him to show himself.

Quickly, D shot out a hand silently to the counter, over to one of the wooden stakes engraved with a sacred symbol that rested on it. He quickly took it down, and in a flash it vanished into his coat. The police girl never looked around, never even noticed. No one seemed to, and no one would unless they were more skilled than D. He had moved too fast. After a few moments more, he turned toward her, and then made her way to her. Her back stayed turned the whole time as he did so. And he moved so silently that she didn't even hear him coming behind her. His movements were slow enough to look like regular walking, and yet not so slow that it appeared blatant that he was sneaking up on her. She didn't react at all as he continued to move closer and closer to her. When he was only a few feet away, he reached back into his coat again. His hand grasped the stake, and he began to pull it out as he closed the last bit of distance...

_Click._

"I wouldn't like to have to kill you, D."

The vampire hunter looked slightly to his left. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw that an arm had suddenly emerged from the shadows...seeming to grow out of them rather than be connected to anything. The arm wore a blood red, old style suit, but more importantly it held a massive pistol in its hand, one that held more destructive power than five .45 Magnums in each shot. And right now, it was clicked and aimed at his head. The police girl turned, and was shocked to see what had happened. The first she heard was the stranger talking from out of the shadows. But now, she saw what had nearly happened. D himself held without showing the slightest bit of fear for a brief moment. But then, he opened his hand and let the stake fall to the ground.

"...This is the best way to contact you when you insist on sneaking around me." He simply answered.

The voice gave out a small laugh from the shadows. The gun stayed leveled at D's head, but its owner soon stepped out. He revealed the rest of the old style suit, looking straight out of a western. It came complete with a long, striped, blood red coat that forked in the back and waved around behind him. He wore no regular tie, but rather a huge, loosely tied bow around his neck that hung down and dangled imperfectly. On top of that was a silver crucifix hanging around this man's neck as well. A old western suit hat was balanced on his head, also blood red, and despite being night and a dark room the man had a pair of small sunglasses on, with circular orange lenses. From behind the lenses, D could see that the eyes were blazing red...far more fierce and ferocious and animal than any other vampire alive. A cold feeling like ice dripped off the man as he entered, and a dark wind moved around him as he came into the light. He had long black hair tied back and under the hat, and as he grinned, he made no secret that his incisors were extra long.

"You haven't changed a bit since the day you were born, D." The man spoke up as he exited the shadows. "You always were a very cold, straight-to-the-point child. You're the same way now. You didn't get that from me, I assure you." He looked away from him for a moment, toward the counter, and then back to the dhampire. "You're still using the old type of weaponry, I see."

"You're still dressing in those old suits, I see." D calmly responded. He paused for a moment, looking over to the police girl. She stared back in some astonishment at this. As far as vampires went...she was rather timid. She had to be his. He was the only one he knew who would let her keep this much of her personality and independence. Of course, that no doubt changed whenever she was subjected to the bloodlust. He believed fully she could become a full fledged sadist if given proper opportunity without a shred of humanity left in her. Vampires that came from humans always did in the end. One of these days, she'd be a ravenous, grinning animal without the slightest desire to return to what she once was. When that happened...D would expect someone would put out a call for him on her.

"So many consider me a traitor to my race," D continued. "While they worship you as a god. If they only knew the truth...Herr Dracula."

The vampire said nothing in reply, but uncocked his gun and drew it back. He replaced it down at his side again. "I prefer Alucard now."

The police girl turned to the vampire in red, her face full of confusion. "Master...do you know...?"

"It's alright." He calmly assured. "He's like me...at least half way." With that, he turned fully to D and folded his hands in front of him. "I don't usually strike up conversation, but I'm intrigued to know how you managed to break your weapon."

D stared back at Alucard expressionlessly. "...I'm not one for stories."

The vampire king grinned, showing off his massive canines again. "Please...entertain my assistant."

D thought about protesting in response to this. He really wasn't in the mood.

"Oh, come on D. She is a nice lady...for the moment." An old voice croaked. "Too bad she's already been drained..."

D paused. He didn't move for a few moments, and thought about this. The truth was, he didn't think much of Alucard. He was one of the few people who knew him, but that was all he thought of him. He didn't ever think much of the fact of their kinship. However...he did think of Miyu...and thought about how, when the last of her kind was dead, she had nothing left but to die herself. And he thought of himself. Was his fate going to be the same? Would that one day be him, asking the same of another in similiar circumstances to finish him? And what friend would he have then to ask for the courtesy? Was he really willing to spend the rest of his life alone? Having only the hunt?

Perhaps...just killing time until the sword was done...

"...Well...I'll start by saying one of the more powerful vampires is now gone..."

* * *

**The End**

* * *

FINAL NOTE: What do you know? Alucard did make it into the story! He even brought Seras! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my crossover fanfiction. I hope it was entertaining enough at any rate, and I hope that you'll check out my other stories. If you enjoyed Inuyasha, then perhaps you'd like to check out "Blade of Imprisoned Souls". Anyway, see you again!


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